From Hell's Heart, to the Heavenly Skies
by NuclearArmadillo
Summary: Modern airborne warfare AU. Teams RWBY, JNPR and CFVY take to the skies in a fight to free an entire kingdom from Cinder and the White Fang's grip. Also, I am going through each of my chapters posted thus far and fixing a number of errors/using a more proper writing style. Enjoy!
1. The Blackbird Stretches its Wings

Hello everyone and welcome to my first story!

Just a bit of explaining before I start, this is an AU story with today's modern military weaponry in the hands of the people of Remnant as opposed to some of the weapons in the show. As opposed to hunters and huntresses, our main characters will instead be students of highly prestigious military academies while keeping their same backstories. However, all the iconic weapons and the world of Remnant itself gets to stay.

Please don't hesitate to give me suggestions via PM or comments!

Chapter one: The Blackbird stretches its wings

The environment of the enlistment office is both hot and humid. The four occupants of the waiting room pass the time in their own ways. Blake has her face buried in a book, Ruby and Yang tap away on their Scrolls and Weiss annoys the rest of the group with her nail file. An officer leans out of the door leading to the main office.

"We're about ready in here, ladies. C'mon in."

With that, the four girls each grab a small pile of documents including Birth certificates, driver's licenses and medical records. Ruby nervously bites her lower lip and feels a supportive hand from her sister grip her shoulder.

"Don't worry Rubes, this is what we've been working so hard for. Now we are finally here".

Ruby nods with a small smile and the group of four enter the room.

Three years later…

Ruby is incredibly nervous. Her first operational mission will begin in less than one hour and it will take place in enemy territory no less. The young pilot nervously taps the locker room floor with her foot at incredible speed.

"Calm yourself down Ruby. This is what you have been training for the past two and a half years for. This is your big moment."

A hostile political takeover of the kingdom of Vacuo by Cinder Fall, along with numerous terrorist attacks by the White Fang have led the kingdoms of Atlas, Mistral, and Vale to form an alliance to maintain peace. However, hope for peace has been lost thanks to a declaration of war from Vacuo just two days prior. This unites the trio of other kingdoms under one 'allied' flag.

Ruby is bought out of her thoughts by a loud buzzer sounding as well as a lightbulb in the corner of the locker room flashing green. Time to go. Moving quickly, Ruby grabs her helmet bag, survival pack and of course, Crescent Rose. Ruby walks outside the building and starts down the flightline toward the hangar where her plane is kept.

Ruby walks down the flightline and admires the impressive array of different planes getting ready for takeoff, including F-15 Eagles, F-35 Lightnings, and a terrifying AC-130U gunship. The mere thought of all the destructive power that plane possesses is enough to send shivers down Ruby's spine.

After a short walk, Ruby throws open the door of a hangar and is greeted with the sight of her beautiful aircraft, an SR-71A Blackbird. Built for high speed and high altitudes, the Blackbird is completely unrivaled in its ability to gather intelligence while remaining completely untouched by enemy weapons.

Ruby performs a quick walk around of the aircraft, ensuring all the parts are fully functional. Ruby is then greeted by her best friend, fellow flight school graduate, and Reconnaissance Systems Officer, Penny Polendina.

"Salutations friend Ruby!"

"Salutations friend Penny! Are you ready to go? I don't know about you, but I have some serious pre-mission jitters."

"Don't worry, silly! You are going to be great!"

Both girls' watches start beeping simultaneously indicating it is time to start the mission. The two aviators attach their helmets and clasp them into place. Ruby and Penny are dressed in form-fitting black and red space suits designed to keep their users safe at the SR-71's operating altitude of 26 kilometers. After a quick check to make sure their suit's pressure seals are perfect, both aviators ascend the short ladders leading to the plane's two cockpits.

Ruby collapses Crescent Rose into its small boxlike form and wedges the weapon into a specially made slot on her ejection seat. Ruby then removes the safety pin near the base of the seat, making it ready for use should the need arise. The young pilot slowly lowers herself into the cockpit and straps herself in. Both aviators complete the numerous pre-flight checks until it is time to start the engines

Ruby gives a signal to the crew chief to fire up the hydraulic system that gives the engines the necessary power to start. The crew positions a 'start cart' underneath one of the two massive engines and connects a driveshaft between the two. One crewmember punches in a command on the cart and it starts spinning the driveshaft at incredible speed, causing the Blackbird's engine to spool up. Ruby watches the RPM meter on her control board climb as the engines gain enough power to sustain themselves.

Satisfied that the plane is in proper working order, Ruby's left hand grips the pair of throttles and she nudges them forward just slightly. The hangar is engulfed in a massive roar and the huge plane begins to slowly lumber forward, out onto the tarmac.

Upon arriving at the designated runway, Ruby uses her suit's built in microphone to contact the control tower.

"Control this is Red Reaper, requesting takeoff permission heading south on runway three."

"Red Reaper you are cleared for takeoff. The sky is yours. Ascend to 10 kilometers for aerial refueling. Good luck."

"Copy that control, my sky."

Ruby hits a button on the side of her suit and activates her helmet's heads-up display. The optimal path to the tanker is marked with a series of brightly colored arrows indicating direction and speed. With a smile on her face, Ruby pushes both throttles all the way forwards.

Both Ruby and Penny are pressed into the backs of their seats as the massive aircraft gains speed rapidly. When the aircraft reaches takeoff speed, Ruby delicately pulls back on the joystick and the plane smoothly climbs into the air. Ruby jabs the button labeled "Landing gear" and the tires are stowed in the body of the plane. With that, Ruby keeps the throttles pinned and begins the ascent to 10 kilometers.

After several minutes of climbing and painstakingly checking instruments, the KC-135 tanker comes into view and Ruby cuts the throttles. Penny quickly talks to the tanker captain and confirms the exact amount of fuel the SR-71 needs.

Ruby starts slowing the plane and maneuvers into position as the tanker's refueling arm lowers. Using only mirrors for reference, Ruby carefully guides her plane's refueling socket to the arm of the tanker. With a satisfying thud, the refueling arm connects to the Blackbird and begins refueling. During the very slight amount of downtime Ruby reviews the mission plans.

Atlas military spies have been hearing rumors of a new Vacuo military base deep in the woods near the border of Vale. Ruby and Penny are to survey the area with the SR-71's high quality cameras and side-scanning radar.

After the Blackbird takes all the fuel it can hold, Ruby detaches the refueling arm and pulls away from the tanker.

"Okay, Ruby we have 1,600 kilometers to the target area. The exact heading is uploading to your helmet now. You are free to begin the acceleration dive."

Ruby smiles as she pushes the throttles all the forward and dips the nose of the plane down. Ruby keeps her eyes glued to the both the speed and altitude gauges. Ruby keeps the plane angled down to reach Mach 1.7 at which point the engines will start pumping air and fuel directly into the afterburner, allowing for Mach 3+ flight.

"C'mon baby, work with me."

Ruby continues watching the altitude meter as it dips below six kilometers. At less than three kilometers, the dive will not be recoverable. Just as the jet hits four kilometers, the speed gauge reads Mach 1.7 and both girls feel a huge surge of acceleration. Ruby yanks back on the control stick to level the plane out and sends it rocketing towards the sky.

Penny happy voice immediately chirps over the radio.

"Nice Rubes! Now let's take this bird up to 26 kilometers!"

Ruby simply smiles as the altitude gauge increases rapidly and the color slowly fades from the sky. Upon arriving at the proper height, Ruby levels out the plane while keeping the throttles pinned. With the plane cruising, steadily at 3.2 times the speed of sound, the two girls settle in for the flight.

After less than half an hour of traveling almost one kilometer per second, the Vacuo base nears ever closer. Both Ruby and Penny are nearly ready to enter the enemy airspace. Ruby quickly flicks some switches, activating the side-scanning radar and the jamming gear onboard meant to confuse enemy radar and missiles. In the rear cockpit, Penny activates the Blackbird's normal and infrared cameras and starts performing tests to make sure the equipment is in working order.

Only a few dozen kilometers from the base, Ruby starts gently turning the aircraft so that it begins circling the enemy airspace.

"Penny you had better have that surveillance gear ready, the Vacuo guys down there have a ton of missiles and I don't want to hang around any longer than I have to."

"Don't worry silly, I am all set to go. Just say the word when we are in range."

Ruby carefully studies the data on her HUD.

"Okay we are in range in three... two… one…"

26 kilometers below, a Vacuo Air Force grunt sits inside a radar truck with his feet propped up on the command console attempting to stay awake while looking at several screens. After letting out another yawn, he notices a small dot appear on the radar screen.

"Hey Rick! Can you come over here for a sec?"

Across the room, a rabbit Faunus slowly sits up and shuffles over to the other workstation.

"What the hell do you want Sam? My shift is almost…Uh oh"

After seeing the radar screen, Rick types in a quick command to the computer to find the object's size and speed. Rick quickly studies the results.

"SHIT! That's an Allied spy bird!"

Sam immediately grabs his scroll and dials the team responsible for anti-air weapons.

"Guys! We have a Vale Air Force SR-71 nearby! Destroy it! Do whatever the hell you have to do!"

Back inside the SR-71, both Ruby and Penny are very pleased with the amount of data and pictures they have acquired so far, until Ruby notices a flashing red light on her control panel. Ruby quickly contacts Penny via her helmet radio.

"Hey, uh Penny? Pretty sure the guys on the ground are tracking us."

"That's okay, so long as we get the last of the info we need and leave pretty soon. Either way we are jamming them so they shouldn't be able to lock on long enough to squeeze a missile off."

Ruby simply acknowledges before seeing more lights on her panel light up and having the words "Missile alert" flash against her HUD. Instinctively, Ruby grabs the throttle and pushes the engines to maximum. As the Blackbird has no defensive systems such as Chaff or flares, its only defense is its speed.

Ruby keeps the throttle pinned as the missile alert slowly begins to disappear, then fades completely. Ruby takes a large sigh of relief as sweat starts to drip down her forehead.

"Uh, Ruby. Check your throttles, might want to dial it back a tiny bit."

Ruby looks down and to her left to see that her hand is still jamming the throttle at maximum as the plane hits Mach 3.5. Ruby swears under her breath and reduces the throttle back to Mach 3.2.

At speeds as high as Mach 3.5, Ruby runs the risk of either melting some key component from the intense heat or vaporizing the plane and its two inhabitants with the slightest shimmy of the plane's control surfaces.

After reducing the speed and getting well clear of the Vacuo base, Ruby allows herself to relax a tiny bit. Ruby checks her fuel gauges and other electronic equipment until Penny's voice interrupts her.

"Alright, looks like we have all the info we are going to get. Let's head home Rubes."

Ruby agrees and slowly turns the plane around to return to base.

After 40 minutes of travel, Ruby and Penny are only a few kilometers from Vale's largest airbase, from which they began their mission. Both girls start working furiously to disable any systems unnecessary for landing as Ruby quickly lowers the landing gear.

Ruby guides the aircraft down ever so carefully as losing one of the highly expensive SR-71's would prove catastrophic. Ruby listens intently as Penny calls out altitudes before the Blackbird's wheels touch the ground.

Ruby immediately cuts the engines and yanks back on the yellow and black handle on her control board labeled "Chute". The plane loses speed rapidly and is bought to a smooth stop on the side of the runway.

Ruby takes several large gulps of air before disconnecting her pressure suit from the plane's life support system and throwing open the canopy. Ruby is greeted by the sight of the ecstatic ground crew as well as her sister, Yang. Ruby carefully removes her helmet and walks down the stairs before her sister catches her in a flying hug.


	2. The Panther and the Jackrabbit go on the

Chapter two: The Blackjack one and the Jackrabbit go on the Prowl

Two days after Ruby and Penny's dangerous flight over the Vacuo base, a team of two B-1 Lancer supersonic bombers are sent to destroy the base. However, before the bombers can even reach the Vale-Vacuo boarder, all contact with them is lost.

Over the massive, featureless desert that separates the kingdoms of Vale and Vacuo, the blue sky is broken up by thin, wispy Cirrus clouds. The long strands of microscopic ice crystals stay suspended over 12 kilometers in the air as the ambient wind currents transport the lighter-than-air ice fragments to nowhere in particular in the heavenly blue skies.

One crystal in particular, shaped like a hexagon is detailed in a perfectly symmetrical nano-scale lattice of angular detailing across the surface of frozen water. Aside from the light wind noise, the area surrounding the crystal is eerily silent. The silence, however, is only temporary, as the area is soon engulfed in a high-pitched whine.

The lone ice crystal is promptly sucked into the air intake of a twin engine combat plane nearly 19 meters in length. The angular body panels of the plane are coated in a nearly featureless matte-gray paint, designed for stealth in all aspects. The pilot of the aircraft, a woman 20 years old with raven-black hair drinks in her gorgeous surroundings as she screams through the sky. Remembering she has a job to do, the pilot takes a large breath and looks downward to her control board.

With extreme precision and speed, Blake Belladonna's amber eyes carefully scan her cockpit's myriad of gauges and control surfaces. At ten kilometers in the air and moving at 1.1 times the speed of sound, a malfunction is the last thing she needs.

Seeing that all her instruments check out, Blake disengages her autopilot and takes full control of her F-22 Raptor.

Built for stealth, situational awareness and extreme maneuverability, the Lockheed-Martin F-22A Raptor is one of the finest combat aircraft ever built. The fighter boasts advanced systems such as 2-D thrust vectoring exhaust nozzles, compatibility with all modern weapons, and near invisibility to radar.

Blake levels out the plane and her eyes flick down to her radar screen, looking carefully for whatever could've shot down the pair of B-1s. Seeing nothing suspicious within 160 kilometers, Blake looks over her shoulder and spots her wingman, Velvet Scarletina's F-35A Lightning II trailing closely behind. Blake reaches down and keys her helmet's microphone.

"Blackjack two, this is Blackjack one. My scan is complete, no aircraft detected."

"Same here. I've been checking radar, infrared scopes. Nothing."

The cat Faunus lets out a frustrated sigh and shuts her eyes for a few seconds, keeping her displeasure in check.

"I acknowledge, Blackjack two. Let's hold our patrol pattern for another half hour. We don't have the fuel to mess around forever."

Velvet continues to closely follow Blake's plane carefully while periodically checking her sensor equipment. While at first seeing nothing, Velvet's sensors pick up four unknown contacts.

"Blackjack one, I have four bogeys. They're in pairs of two and 190 kilometers out. Looks like they're patrolling the boarder."

Blake digests the information and her eyes narrow into extremely thin slits.

"Copy that, two. Move to engage."

The two Faunus pilots push their planes to full afterburner with Blake's F-22 greatly outpacing the comparatively slower F-35. As Blake overtakes Velvet, she catches a glimpse of the art adorning one of the F-22's tailfins. The tail features a terrifying coiled viper with ' _399_ _th_ _stealth operations squadron'_ printed just underneath.

Velvet's gloved fingers dance across her F-35's touchscreen control board, arming the four AIM-120D AMRAAM radar-guided missiles stored inside the fighter's two weapon bays. The rabbit Faunus re-checks her sensor data and compares the radar readouts of the unknown planes to a large database. Upon obtaining a result, Velvet's heart nearly skips a beat.

"Blackjack one, I've got some ID on the bogeys, they're SU-30SMs… Want me to implement some harassment measures?"

"Heh, harass away, two. Just try to save ammo, we're outnumbered."

With that, Velvet uses the touchscreen in front of her to select two of her plane's AMRAAM missiles and designate targets for them. Velvet re-checks her radar displays and sees that the four Sukhois are in pairs of two, orbiting each other directly over the boarder now only 110 kilometers away. The F-35 pilot's right thumb flips the weapon selector switch on the control stick before squeezing the trigger.

"Blackjack two, Fox three!"

Underneath the F-35, one of the two weapons bays opens, revealing the two desired AMRAAM missiles. The clamps holding the missiles in place detach and the rocket engines ignite, accelerating the weapons to four times the speed of sound in only a few seconds.

Blake watches the pair of missiles overtake her and peel off toward each pair of SU-30s. The F-22 pilot's amber eyes flick downward to her radar screen where she sees the Sukhois immediately break from their patrol patterns and start charging towards the two stealth fighters.

Blake's heart immediately starts pumping loudly and she keys her mic.

"Now it's a party. Looks like you pissed them off pretty bad."

"Heh, that's my specialty. You get in close and run them down. If you can, try to lay a few out so I can pull off an AMRAAM shot. I can't outmaneuver those things in this plane."

Blake simply acknowledges Velvet and flips a short series of switches, arming her F-22's supply of AIM-120 radar-guided missiles. The cat Faunus obtains a radar lock on one pair of the Sukhois and fires four of her AMRAAMs.

"Blackjack one, Fox three!"

On Blake's F-22, a pair of weapons bay doors open on the belly of the plane and the first missile is detached from its mounts with the help of a hydraulic ejection system. After the first missile ignites its engine, the three other missiles are fired in quarter-second intervals before the bay doors snap shut.

In an instant, all four missiles accelerate to their maximum speed and start relentlessly tracking their targets. The first plane releases a large amount of chaff and performs an extremely tight series of turns. The chaff, coupled with the complicated maneuvering causes the pair of missiles to lose their lock and fly off in random directions, the second plane is not so lucky.

The doomed Sukhoi, failing to use its countermeasures or perform evasive maneuvers in time to avoid the missiles is struck once, then twice. The first missile impacts the very front of the aircraft and detonates, blowing the front half of the plane to tiny metal fragments. Then, the second missile streaks through the mass of debris generated by the first explosion and blasts apart the remaining half of the plane.

Blake sees the _'target destroyed'_ indicator flash on her display and feels a huge rush of adrenaline before quickly keying her mic.

"Splash one!"

"Good job, Blake! Let's send 'em packing!"

As Velvet's F-35 continues to carefully circle Blake and the Sukhois, Blake's amber eyes are fixed on the other Su-30 heading directly at her.

Deciding not to risk wasting any more AMRAAMs, Blake switches her weapon selection to the pair of heat-seeking AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles stored in the two smaller weapons bays on either side of the F-22's belly. Blake re-checks the distance to the other plane and the indicator reads 5 kilometers and dropping rapidly.

Before the cat Faunus can even think about squeezing the trigger, her plane's missile alarm starts blasting in her headphones, warning her of the four short-range R-73 missiles fired by the Sukhoi. Blake instinctively jabs the countermeasures button on her control board, releasing a cloud of IR flares that scramble the targeting systems of the four missiles.

Less than a second later, the Su-30 blows right by Blake's canopy at mach speed. Blake yanks back on her control stick, sending her F-22 into a steep climb, unaware that the opposing pilot has mirrored her movements.

Halfway through performing the loop, Blake looks up and sees the other plane has perfectly replicated her move. Now less than 100 meters away from each other and still in a vertical climb, time seems to slow to a crawl for both pilots. With her enhanced natural vision, Blake can practically see the surprised facial expression on the opposing pilot.

For a few moments, all is silent until Blake's targeting reticle mounted in her helmet's heads-up display flashes red. The cat Faunus squeezes her trigger twice without thought. The sound of the plastic trigger hitting the backstop of her control stick rings out like a pair of cannon blasts in her ears as the pair of Sidewinder missiles are launched toward their target.

The pair of missiles are ejected from either boths sides of Blake's F-22 and start tracking the Su-30, needing to only adjust their angle slightly since the fighters are flying parallel to each other. Both weapons impact the rear of the Sukhoi and blow the plane apart, sending small chunks of shrapnel and debris high into the atmosphere.

Blake completes the loop and performs a half-roll, leveling the F-22 off at an altitude of 15 kilometers. The cat Faunus quickly keys her mic.

"Splash two! Halfway there!"

"Good job! Now stop celebrating and come help me, these guys aren't messing around."

Blake immediately focuses her attention on her radar screen and sees that the pair of Su-30s are relentlessly attacking Velvet in extremely close quarters. The cat Faunus pushes her F-22 to full throttle and accelerates downward toward Velvet and her two attackers.

In the thick of the fight, Velvet struggles to outmaneuver the extremely agile Sukhois. The rabbit Faunus looks behind her, past her ejection seat just long enough to see the two planes open fire with their GSh-30-1 autocannons. Velvet inverts her plane and yanks back on the control stick, sending the F-35 careening toward the ground, barely dodging the torrent of lead from the hostile fighters.

Blake, now in a near-vertical dive, watches the Su-30s chase after Velvet's plane by replicating her maneuver. With all four planes hurtling toward the surface, Blake further closes the distance between her and the rest of the planes and takes a quick look at her weapon inventory.

Seeing that she is out of short-range Sidewinder missiles, Blake switches her weapon to fighter's M61 Vulcan rotary cannon. With extreme precision, she places one of the two remaining Sukhois in her gunsight.

"Blackjack one is in hot!"

Blake squeezes the trigger, unleashing a 100-round burst onto the hostile fighter jet. The spray of deadly metal fragments tears off both of the plane's wings as well as most of the two engines. The remaining three planes pull out of their dive just in time to avoid colliding with the ground while the destroyed Sukhoi impacts the desert floor and bursts into flames.

"Splash three! Finish them off, Velvet!"

"Oh, just you watch."

Now flying extremely low and fast along the desert floor, Velvet cuts her throttle to zero and deploys her flaps whilst performing a full roll. The maneuver results in the F-35 losing practically all its speed, placing it directly behind the Su-30.

In a blur, Velvet acquires a radar lock on the Sukhoi and fires a single AMRAAM at her attacker.

"Blackjack two, Fox three!"

The missile immediately seeks its prey and detonates close to the bracing where the fighter's left wing connects to its body. The explosion blows off the left wing and sends the jet into an uncontrollable spin, only to crash into the desert below a few seconds later. Velvet takes a large breath and keys her mic.

"Splash four! Is that everybody, Blake?"

"Yeah, that's everybody. Guess we know who shot down those bombers of ours..."

"I agree. Let's head back to base, I'll follow you."

With that, Velvet pulls up and falls into a loose formation behind Blake's F-22. Only now, Velvet realizes that her heart is beating loud enough for her to hear it. The rabbit Faunus taps in a command into her plane's control board and lets the autopilot systems take over. Blake snaps open her helmet's sun visor, tunes her radio to an open channel and keys her mic.

"This is Captain Blake Belladonna of the 399th Stealth Operations Squadron. Blackjack two and I have shot down four Vacuo Air Force Su-30SMs that were patrolling the area where the missing B-1 Lancers were last seen. It almost certain that the aircraft we shot down were responsible for the destruction of the bombers. Returning to base."


	3. An Eagle Takes Flight

Chapter three: An Eagle takes flight

"Um. I'm sorry ma'am. This is the only one we have". Weiss frowns at the squeaky-voiced teenage recruit behind the equipment desk.

Weiss had been waiting in line for 20 minutes to receive her new flight suit as she had just completed her training and been assigned a unit. Unfortunately, the fashion-conscious huntress was currently being presented an olive drab flight suit, survival vest and a standard helmet. Weiss sighs and asks "Are you sure the suit doesn't come in any color other than that?" The recruit scratches the back of his head and says "Uh, no ma'am. If you want I can call my supervisor". Weiss sighs and says "It's alright, I will make do with this" as she takes the assigned equipment.

Weiss walks back to her quarters and smiles when she sees her name stitched onto her uniform with the word "Colonel".

The white-haired huntress had opted early on in her training to become an officer so that she could command her own fighter squadron right out of flight school. Each squadron composed of five aircraft with one being designated the leader.

Weiss smiles as she unlocks her door, knowing that she will have four other F-15s backing her up anytime she has a mission. She stores her new equipment in her room's locker and sits down at her desk and closes her eyes, feeling happy for the first time in a long time.

The peaceful silence is cut short by Weiss' scroll alerting her to a new message. Weiss grabs the phone and the message reads "Officer Shnee report to ready room #9 with full flight equipment for briefing. Mission ID: combat air patrol over exclusion zone. Briefing starts in five minutes".

As Weiss walks to the briefing room, her mind is frantic with activity. "Oh, my god my first patrol, I have never done a serious mission before. What if I lose my plane? Or a squad mate? I don't know if I can do this". Weiss snaps herself back into attention as she enters the ready room and takes her seat next to Reese Chloris, her wingman for the patrol.

The skater girl smiles at Weiss as both pilots get seated and wait in the dark room for the division commander to begin. After a minute, the commander arrives and sets up his laptop. The commander smiles weakly at the two pilots and says "Hi there ladies. We have a situation on our hands so I will get to the point. 10 minutes ago, our radar picked up five unidentified contacts approaching the exclusion zone. We had a T-38 trainer on a flight nearby so we had the pilot look and see if the planes were hostile. The trainer pilot saw White Fang markings painted all over the planes. At their current heading, they will arrive here in 30 minutes. I need you two to intercept and eliminate the hostile aircraft. We also have a flight of three F-35As on standby if you two get overwhelmed. That is all, dismissed".

Reese and Weiss both run as fast as possible toward their respective aircraft in the hangar closest to the main runway. Upon arriving, both ground crews are working furiously to finish arming and fueling the F-15s. The two pilots complete their pre-flight checks just as the last engineer removes the arming key from the final missile attached to the underside if Reese's aircraft.

Weiss glances behind her and notices that Reese took the time to paint a shark mouth on the nose of her plane. Weiss scoffs at her wingman's unprofessionalism and sits herself down in the cockpit. The heiress tightens her ejection seat's shoulder straps and ties her hair back before donning her helmet and snapping down the visor. Weiss boots up her aircraft's electronics and tunes her radio to the designated frequency for the mission.

Weiss looks to the F-15 to her right and says into her mic "Comm check, you there kickflip?" Weiss hears Reese respond "Kickflip here, I read you sabre. Let's get this done". Both huntresses activate their plane's engines and perform weapon checks before taxiing. Weiss ensures that her short and medium range missiles are working properly before pushing her throttles forward slightly with Reese following closely behind. Both huntresses position their F-15's side by side on the runway, Weiss says into her radio "Command, this is sabre. Requesting immediate takeoff permission". Weiss hears back "We copy sabre, you are cleared down the line. Good luck".

Weiss exhales nervously and pushes her F-15's two engines to full afterburner. After reaching takeoff speed, Weiss pulls up and keeps her throttle pinned to get to the cruising altitude as quickly as possible. With Reese following closely behind, Weiss levels off her plane, satisfied that the machine is operating perfectly. Reese calls to Weiss "Sabre, I recommend we proceed at Mach 2 until we get within a couple kilometers of the targets". Weiss quickly agrees and both planes remain on afterburners for the short flight.

Reese feels extremely confident going into the fight despite being outnumbered. In flight school, she scored more air to air kills during training exercises than even Blake or Velvet. With a slight smile on her face, the skater girl checks that all her weapons are ready to fire. After ensuring that her four of her Sidewinder missiles as well as her four mid-range AMRAAM missiles were in proper working order, she sees four large dots and one very small dot appear on her radar screen.

Reese immediately calls to Weiss "Sabre! I have radar contact with the hostile aircraft! I suggest we move to intercept!" Weiss responds "I agree, lets hold off on the mid-range missiles just for now, I want to see what we are up against". Reese acknowledges Weiss and the pair turn slightly to face the attackers. At their current heading, Weiss and Reese are flying a perpendicular path and will intersect with the hostile formation in less than a minute.

The white-haired huntress checks her instruments and instructs her wingman "Alright kickflip. I want you to obtain a missile lock on one of the planes, I will as well. On my mark, I want you to fire so we can take them by surprise. It looks like the planes we are up against are four Mirage 2000s and the lead plane is… uh oh, it's a PAK-FA. That's definitely bad news".

Both huntress pilots flick the arming switches that prepare one Sidewinder missile each. Both planes easily obtain a lock and Weiss does her best to keep her breath steady as she keeps her eyes glued to the radar screen. The huntress then begins counting down "Fire in three, two, one… FIRE!"

Both F-15s release their respective missiles almost simultaneously, the two weapons fall from their mounts and their engines ignite, accelerating the missiles. Both huntress pilots inadvertently targeted the same Mirage 2000 that was in the rear of the formation and as such, both missiles hone in on the ill-fated aircraft.

Reese's sidewinder strikes the side of the Mirage first and blows the cockpit and part of the body into fragments the size of rice grains. The second missile detonates further to the rear of the now decapitated aircraft and gouges out a large chunk of the plane's body, sending the remaining hulk tumbling to the desert floor.

Weiss feels goosebumps all over her skin as the two F-15s blow past the enemy formation at very high speed. The huntress composes herself and says over radio "Good kill, good kill. Arc around to the right, let's hit them again". Reese acknowledges her wingman and the two perform a very tight turn and see the formation break up.

The PAK-FA and one of the Mirage-2000s peel off while the remaining two planes accelerate greatly toward the base. Weiss calls to Reese "I got a look at the underside of the Mirages, they are loaded to the brim with bombs. We gotta take them out, you go for the two that peeled off. I got these guys". Reese quickly acknowledges Weiss and turns hard to catch up with the escaping planes.

The white-haired aviator pulls up and gains altitude rapidly, leveling off at 60,000 feet. Weiss spots the two Mirage 2000s on her radar screen, now 30km away. Weiss flicks another arming switch, readying two of her F-15's medium range AMRAAM missiles. Weiss obtains a lock on the two hostile fighters and pulls the trigger, hoping to bring a quick end to the fight.

On the underside of the heiress' F-15, the first of the two mid-range missiles releases from its clamps, ignites its engine and streaks toward its target and detonates, destroying the enemy aircraft without a hitch. The second missile is not so lucky. A minor wiring issue with the release mechanism for the second missile caused only one of the clamps restraining the missile to release, pinning the weapon to the aircraft. Weiss barely has time to see the glaring error message on the screen in front of her before the engine on the missile ignites, sending the aircraft into a crazed spin.

"Oh my god I am going to die" is the only thought running through Weiss' head. The white-haired aviator wrestles with the controls, attempting to bring the F-15 back under control. Unfortunately, the plane doesn't respond in the slightest.

Reese, now aware of her commander's situation screams over the radio "COMMANDER! For god's sake punch out!" Weiss starts fumbling for the ejection seat lever mounted on the base of the chair. As Weiss' fingers graze the ejection handle, another thought crosses her mind. Weiss musters all the strength she can and manages to hit the manual release switch for all her aircraft's externally mounted weapons.

To the girl's great relief, the switch works properly and ejects all the remaining missiles from the craft, allowing the heiress to gain control once again. As the aircraft steadies, Weiss immediately grabs a bag from one of the pockets of her flight suit, rips off her oxygen mask, and vomits profusely.

After tying up the bag and coughing several times, Weiss calls to Reese with a newfound fury in her voice "Kickflip, this is Sabre! I am re-engaging as we speak! Let's finish these bastards off!" Weiss accelerates to catch up with the remaining Mirage 2000 and arms her aircraft's M61 Vulcan cannon.

Reese smiles as she hears the anger in her commander's voice, knowing that the advantage is no longer with the White Fang pilots. As Reese had been the undisputed top dog of flight school, she is not worried in the slightest knowing that other ace pilots such as Blake, Velvet and even her own commander were unable to touch her as she scored dozens of simulation victories. The huntress' natural grace with her hover board translated almost perfectly to the cockpit of an F-15.

Reese pushes her throttles slightly forward as she spots the escaping Mirage as well as the PAK-FA. The skater notices the Mirage drop its full load of bombs to outrun the F-15 and save itself. Reese catches up to the pair and the PAK-FA reduces its speed and drops behind Reese to get an easy shot off on the huntress pilot. Reese simply scoffs and allows the enemy pilot obtain a missile lock on her while she arms another sidewinder missile intended for the Mirage.

The PAK-FA fires and Reese answers with a quick push of the joystick's Chaff button, confusing the targeting systems of the missile and causing it to peel off. This cycle repeats twice more with Reese's enjoyment only increasing. The Pilot of the PAK-FA however, gets incredibly mad.

The skater girl sees the enemy jet start to fire its 30mm cannon without remorse. Reese chuckles and masterfully weaves side to side as the rounds from the hostile jet wastes its ammunition. However, a single round from the hostile plane finds its mark and strikes the rear of Reese's canopy, leaving a large crack. Had the canopy not been present, Reese would've had her head taken clean off.

With the single hit, Reese immediately stops going easy on the two White Fang planes. The pilot reduces her speed and opens her flaps, allowing her plane to lose speed quickly whilst doing a full roll. After the PAK-FA blows by, Reese fires the previously armed sidewinder missile. The missile gains speed rapidly and impacts the very unfortunate Mirage 2000. The explosive warhead of the missile detonates on the underbelly of the aircraft and causes the separation of both aircraft's wings and destroys the engines.

Reese takes a bit of pride seeing the doomed Mirage plummet helplessly to the floor of the harsh desert. Now wasting no time, Reese arms her F-15's M61 cannon and expertly fires off 250 of the plane's 20mm rounds. The ammunition tears apart the PAK-FA and kills the pilot immediately, leaving the now-useless hunk of aluminum and composite materials to the will of gravity. Reese then calls to Weiss "Sabre this is Kickflip, all of my hostiles are eliminated. I am ready to assist if necessary". The skater girl hears her commander angrily shout into the mic "Not necessary! I got this guy!"

Weiss is absolutely infuriated as she chases down the one remaining Mirage 2000 without any ranged weapons. The heiress closes within 500 meters of the escaping aircraft as the two planes engage in a mid-air dance to out-bank one another. Suddenly, Weiss stops banking whilst the Mirage continues turning frantically. Waiting for the perfect moment, Weiss squeezes the trigger as the hostile plane crosses Weiss' gunsight.

The violent spray of 20mm rounds takes off the tailfin of the escaping plane and sends it tumbling toward the Earth. Weiss sees a small flash and a puff of smoke from the doomed plane's cockpit as the White Fang pilot ejects and deploys his parachute.

Weiss takes a minute to circle the slowly descending White Fang pilot as she glares at him through her helmet's visor. The girl takes a minute to calm herself before saying to Reese "All hostiles eliminated. Let's get back to base".

Reese acknowledges her commander as she falls into formation. After a few tense moments, Reese says "One thing is for sure, those guys were going to bomb our base. This won't be the last one of these attacks you know. Ironwood is going to want to retaliate as soon as possible". Weiss exhales and states calmly "I know. Personally, I can't wait."

Several hours later, Weiss and her wingman are walking through the pilot barracks of Vale Central AFB. The heiress throws open a door and the two are greeted to the sight of the pilot common area with various aviators either relaxing on the couches while watching the various televisions or talking in small groups at the scattered tables. The two huntress pilots walk in front of a large cork board labeled "Hit List" in large red marker.

On the board are various photos, maps and charts with some notable features include photos of White Fang leader Adam Taurus, the new leader of Vacuo Cinder Fall, and crazed vigilante, Tyrian. Also present are photos of various hostile bases and aircraft with a new addition being a newly discovered White Fang base.

Reese says with venom in her voice "I can't wait to take these evil bastards down, this war is going to get dragged out and I want to end it". Weiss lets out an uncharacteristic chuckle and says "Don't you worry. We will, and it will feel sooo good when the time comes".


	4. A Knight begins a New Crusade

Chapter four: A Knight begins a New Crusade

"Man, why did they think trusting me with this would be a good idea" Jaune Arc quietly mumbles to himself as he takes in an eyeful of his massive B-1 Lancer bomber aircraft.

Jaune had been sitting atop a shipping crate blissfully staring at his plane for the past 30 minutes, knowing that a combat mission would be on its way judging by the teams of engineers moving weapons toward the aircraft on large racks.

Sighing, Jaune dismounts from his seat and walks toward the pilot's barracks, hoping to calm his nerves. As the hunter opens the doors to the common room, his eyes scan the area and he spots Ruby sitting lying on a couch by herself in the corner with her headphones on and her face buried in a weapons magazine.

Jaune flops down on the couch and says tiredly to the young huntress "Hey there Ruby". Ruby pulls her headphones off and says excitedly "Hey Jaune! How are ya?" Jaune replies "Hanging in there, I'm assuming you heard the rumors about us having to hit the White Fang base you found recently, right?" Ruby nods excitedly and Jaune says "Well it is going to be my first real mission. Were you this nervous before your first flight?" Ruby laughs a little and replies "Yup, I kinda felt like I was gunna throw up for two straight days before I began the mission. But at least you get to blow stuff up! All I get to do is go really really fast in wide circles and take pictures. God I wish I signed up for the bomber division".

Jaune lets out a small laugh and leans back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. After a second the hunter says "It's just that there is a lot riding on this, plus I have three other crewmates counting on me to make snap decisions just right. You know how it is."

Ruby silently nods and the two continue talking about random topics as the sunlight coming in from the windows fades to a deep orange. After a few minutes of light conversation, Jaune's scroll begins to buzz, causing the hunter's skin to go white. Jaune looks at the scroll and says to Ruby nervously "Time to go…" Ruby wraps her friend in a tight hug and whispers into his ear "Go kick some ass for me Jaune"

Fifteen minutes later, all of team JNPR as well as nine other crewmembers fill one of the ready-rooms, all eager to get on with the day's assignment. To the surprise of everyone, General Ironwood himself enters the room with a small stack of papers, prompting everybody to snap to attention and salute.

General Ironwood then says "At ease everyone. Now I know all of you have heard the rumors going around that we are going to smack a Vacuo base tonight. Well… it's true, we are finally getting our act together and striking despite the war having started a while ago." Some chuckles fill the room as the projector boots up and displays a fully-animated briefing presentation on the whiteboard.

Ironwood produces a laser pointer from his jacket and says "Here is the plan. We are going to have four aircraft working on this operation, two B-2 Spirits, One B-52 and one B-1. We are going to have the B-2s make an initial pass coming up from the south, neutralizing both the anti-air defenses and the main command bunker. Then, we will have JNPR's B-1 make three passes to destroy any enemy aircraft on the ground as well as some of the smaller buildings. Finally, the B-52 will make a final pass to destroy the runway as well as the main buildings. Any questions?"

Lie Ren raises his hand and says in his trademark calm voice "Are we going to have fighter escorts? If enemy aircraft try to intercept us we will be sitting ducks". Ironwood sternly replies "No. I am already taking a huge risk by running this op as it is. I am not going to be risking any more aircraft." Ren simply nods and grinds his teeth in frustration. Ironwood then says "All of the exact flight plans and targets have been uploaded to your respective aircraft's computers. Takeoff will proceed at sunset in one hour. Good luck out there, dismissed."

A short while later, Jaune finds himself in the exact same position he was in a few hours ago. The hunter gazes upon his B-1 with a renewed sense of confidence while attempting to keep his nerves in check. Jaune notices his weapon systems officer and long-time friend Nora Valkyrie over at the weapon racks with a can of spray paint and a sharpie, working happily. Jaune walks over and says to the redhead "Hey Nora, watcha doing?" Nora happily replies "Hi there Jaune Jaune! I'm just doing some artwork".

Jaune looks at the bombs in front of Nora and sees large black letters on the bombs with phrases like "PACKAGE FROM VALE" and "BEACON SAYS HI!" and most notably "ADAM AND CINDER SUCK DICK". The blonde-haired hunter chuckles and pulls the crew chief aside then asks him "Um, is this sort of thing allowed?" The engineer shrugs and replies "Probably not. I'm just too afraid to stop her".

Jaune smiles and hears two more sets of boots walk into the hangar. The blonde turns around and sees his perpetually-calm defensive systems officer Ren, as well as his beautiful copilot and girlfriend Pyrrah, both clad in olive colored flight suits. Pyrrah jogs over to Jaune and wraps him in a tight hug before saying quietly "Hi there babe… Look, I know that you are nervous about all of this but it is no different than training. You are going to do great and you know it." Jaune nods and says almost silently "Okay."

Ren smiles slightly and says to the couple "Hey um, guys. Let's get this show on the road, sunset is in 30 minutes". Both lovers crack a grin and Pyrrah says sweetly "Now let's get this war over with nice and quick". The couple releases their embrace and all four hunters and huntresses perform a walk-around of the huge aircraft, checking for any visible defects. Soon, the last bomb is loaded and the final drop of fuel added. Jaune turns to his team and says in a raised voice "Alright JNPR! Let's saddle up!"

The group throws open the door leading to the interior of the bomber, the team all board with Ren entering last and shutting the door behind him. The team works its way through the jet's darkened interior. Ren and Nora sit in their respective seats upon arriving to the first two sets of control consoles. The pair strap themselves in and don their helmets while booting up their stations. Jaune and Pyrrah squeeze themselves through the small crawlspace that separates Ren and Nora's stations. The two pilots arrive at the cockpit and take their seats, now well-worn from spending hundreds of hours planted firmly on the soft fabric.

All four hunters continue readying themselves by putting on their flight helmets, attaching their oxygen masks, priming their ejection seats and getting their workstations powered up. Pyrrah sees the crew chief give the "All clear" signal. Pyrrah turns to Jaune and says "Okay, let's spin them up". Jaune flicks four switches and feels the plane vibrate, followed by a frighteningly loud roar as the engines churn to life. Pyrrah checks the diagnostic screen and says "Alright. All engines look good, let's roll this thing out". Jaune nods and gives the throttles a nudge forward. The four hunters feel a jolt as the plane starts rolling out of the hangar, letting sunlight flow through the aircraft's windshields.

Jaune activates the radio and hears "White knight, this is tower. Proceed to runway number two and que for takeoff with the rest of your squadron. The hunter acknowledges the tower and continues maneuvering the B-1 toward the designated runway, the pilot turns the plane onto a side-road and sees the two B-2 Spirits in line on the designated runway. Jaune applies the brakes and hears tires screeching as the plane comes to a smooth halt.

Pyrrah calls the tower saying "Tower, this is White Knight. We have arrived at the runway, awaiting takeoff permission". The tower responds "We hear you White Knight, we are waiting for your remaining squad mate". Pyrrah cocks her head to the side and says with a smile "Here he comes". The massive B-52 coated in a matte gray paint slowly lumbers into position behind JNPR's B-1 and signals the control tower that it is in position.

All four of the bomber aircraft hear "Alright team, this is command. You are to take off in 30 second intervals and proceed west in formation toward the target area in Saunus and complete your mission. All the smaller details are listed in your computers. Best of luck to you all, you are cleared to takeoff". With that, the aircraft all begin furiously checking instruments and performing final pre-flight checks.

The raido silence is broken by the lead B-2 announcing "This is Wraith zero-one, taking off". Jaune looks up and sees the flying wing style stealth bomber start to surge forward from its spot on the runway. The B-2 continues accelerating and gently lifts into the air after hitting takeoff speed. Jaune then hears "This is Wraith zero-two, pulling away".

The second stealth bomber follows the previous by accelerating quickly and lifting off, kicking up various chunks of dirt and smearing them across the B-1's windshields. Jaune slowly counts to thirty and announces over the radio "This is White Knight, I'm taking off.

The blonde hunter forces the throttles to maximum and the four occupants of the B-1 are squished back into their seats as the plane accelerates. Jaune then pulls back on the joystick and the plane eases into the beautiful orange sky. The hunter angles the plane upward and starts trailing the second B-2 to take off. Soon, all the planes hear the B-52 announce "Hydra taking off now".

Jaune and Pyrrah slowly slide JNPR's B-1 into a "Conga Line" formation behind the second B-2 to take off with the B-52 falling into line in the back. The two hunter pilots exchange small smiles and settle in for the long flight.

Two hours later, night has fallen, leaving the squadron of bomber aircraft in complete darkness. The four planes are spaced ¼ mile apart from each other, advancing toward the objective at sub-sonic speeds to conserve fuel. All of the aircrews are busy making preparations to infiltrate the enemy airspace under the cover of darkness.

Pyrrah sighs as she continues to monitor the radar screen as well as the fuel and hydraulic gauges. With the plane on autopilot there is little to do other than making sure essential systems continue working as intended. Meanwhile, Jaune goes over a short list of tasks on a clipboard, illuminated with a red flashlight to protect the night vision of the pilots.

Jaune ticks off another check and calls to Ren in the back "Hey Ren, you got the jamming gear ready to go?" The stoic hunter checks the diagnostic screen for the AN/ALQ-161 jamming pod mounted inside the B-1. Satisfied, Ren says back "Yup, all good back here. I'll leave it off until we get only a few kilometers from our target. Jaune then says "Nora, ya got the Sniper pod all set?" Nora checks her screens relating to the Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod mounted underneath the plane and responds cheerily" All set boss!" Jaune turns to Pyrrah and says smiling" Looks like we are set to go, now we just wait".

After another 45 minutes, the aircrews continue working to ready their aircraft for the attack run on the Vacuo base. Pyrrah looks around the inky blackness that surrounds the aircraft with her night-vision gear and sees movement on the ground.

The redhead huntress elbows Jaune in the shoulder and says "Hey, check out all the activity down below". Curious, Jaune dons his night-vision goggles and looks down through the windscreen. Jaune sees numerous Beowulf Grimm running through the woods as well as a huge King Taijitu slithering its way across the landscape.

Jaune cracks a smile and says "Kinda peaceful when you look at them from a distance. Makes me want to re-purpose some of the weapons against them". A suddenly interested Nora shouts "OOH, CAN WE?" Pyrrah chuckles and says "Sorry Nora, we gotta fight everyone else first. Then we can take out the Grimm".

All of the aviators hear Nora let out and exaggerated sigh, allowing them a laugh. Suddenly, the B-2 Spirit in the lead announces to the other planes "Alright everyone, we just entered enemy airspace. Let's get this done people".

Jaune and the B-52 both reduce their speed, letting the B-2s go ahead to release their bombs first. Pyrrah turns to her partner and asks "How much ordnance do you think we should use per pass? Six bombs apiece?" The blonde hunter replies "Nah, let's use eight per pass. Might as well use all 24. You hear that Nora?" The bubbly girl replies "Got it! All the targets are punched in, just waiting on you now". Jaune says somewhat shakily "Alright everyone, we are set for our run. Let's let the Stealth Bombers soften them up for us".

Half a mile ahead, the lead B-2 pilot announces to his co-pilot as well as the other stealth bomber "Alright , this is it. Let's stealth up". Both pilots push a button on their respective control panels, retracting any external antennas or sensors that would reduce the stealthy qualities of the B-2's skin. The two stealth bombers proceed to open their respective bomb bays and make final preparations for their attack run.

With less than three kilometers to go, the pair of stealth bombers reach the drop point and the first plane releases its ordnance. The B-2 in front of the formation releases 16 GBU-31 JDAM bombs from a pair of rotary launchers buried within the plane.

The 2,000 pound bombs fall gracefully toward the marked targets with help from adjustable fins on the rear of the bomb, designed to guide the weapons toward the target with extreme accuracy. As the bombs impact their targets, they cripple the base's anti-air radar as well as neutralize the numerous missile sites and gun emplacements designed to defend from enemy planes. The aircraft commander checks to see that the bombs impacted the proper targets and gives a signal to the second B-2.

Now that the anti-air defenses are eliminated, the second B-2 locks onto the command bunker buried 100 feet underground and primes its two MOP bombs for release. As the stealth bomber arrives at the designated location, the aircraft's computer automatically releases the clamps holding the bombs in place.

The two 30,000 pound bombs plummet towards the ill-fated bunker and crash through the ground, losing only a small amount of speed and detonate, completely obliterating the bunker with a combined force of over 10,000 pounds of high explosives.

About 200 kilometers away, a scientist is woken up by his computer beeping loudly. The researcher looks at the monitor and sees that his newly-placed seismic sensors register a magnitude 2.5 earthquake that lasts for less than one second. The scientist frowns and wonders what sort of incredibly violent event could've caused the short quake.

With the air defenses and bunker eliminated, the second B-2 closes its bay doors and announces to JNPR "White Knight, this is Wraith zero-two. You are clear to commence your run. Good luck".

Jaune acknowledges the stealth bomber and lowers his plane's altitude to 5,000 feet and pushes the throttles to maximum, propelling the B-1 to Mach one. Pyrrah says to her crewmembers "This is it everyone. Jaune, let's make this short and sweet". The blonde huntsman nods and opens the bomber's trio of bomb bays. He then flicks the master arming switch on his control panel and announces to his crewmembers "We're hot!" Jaune hovers his thumb over the button on his joystick labeled "Release all designated".

The instant JNPR's B-1 arrives at the drop point, Jaune jabs the release button and eight of the bomber's two dozen AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons are released from the plane in half-second intervals, causing the entire plane to shake. The bombs fall from the plane and extend a set of wings, allowing them to navigate by GPS toward their respective targets.

Gaining speed rapidly, the eight bombs orient themselves to fly toward either aircraft hangars or maintenance buildings. Just before impact, the eight bombs release their payload of 145 bomblets that detonate upon contacting the ground, vaporizing their respective targets and setting the target area ablaze thanks to a zirconium ring contained in each of the bomblets.

In the complete chaos of the attack, one Vacuo military member runs out of a burning building with a portable missile launcher and spots the low flying B-1. He takes aim and fires after obtaining a lock, hoping to bring an end to the bomber.

Jaune sees the missile warning indicator start flashing on his control panel and says to Ren "Ren we have a missile! Is the jamming gear working?" Ren quickly replies "It's working, the missile is still tracking us". Jaune thinks quickly and shouts "It's gotta be a heat seeker! Release some infrared flares!" to which Ren replies "We don't have any! Just dodge the friggin thing!"

Jaune jams his controls to the side and throws the B-1 into a tight turn, compressing the four occupants of the bomber due to the intense G-forces. Pyrrah looks around frantically and spots the missile streaking toward the plane. She then shouts "Missile is coming from the right! Dodge left! Dodge left!" The blonde hunter wrestles the control stick to the left and continues turning tightly as the missile overshoots the B-1 and loses its lock.

Jaune levels out the plane and Pyrrah sees that her partner is sweating out of panic. The girl grabs Jaune's shoulder and says in a stern voice "Jaune, get yourself together. We still have two more passes to do and we can't do them if you are a nervous wreck". Pyrrah grabs a small water bottle and says "Here, drink this. It'll help you focus".

Jaune takes a big chug from the bottle and gets the sensation that his mouth is on fire. He quickly swallows and says whilst coughing "What the hell was that?!" Pyrrah smiles and replies "Hot sauce. Nora figured that the pain would help distract you no matter how scared you got". Jaune hears Nora laughing to herself and she says happily "You're welcome commander!"

With that, the blonde chuckles and slowly turns the plane around, properly angling the aircraft for the second attack run. Jaune once again hovers his finger over the release button as Pyrrah counts down the distance to the release point, then presses the button once more.

Just as before, the eight glide bombs fall from the B-1 and deploy their wings, this time targeting a new set of hangars and buildings and promptly blowing them out of existence before setting even more of the area on fire. Jaune looks down and sees that the base is almost entirely ablaze, illuminating the surrounding forest almost like it's daytime.

The pilot then says to Nora "I'm actually not sure we need to make a third pass. What do you think?" Nora checks her instruments and responds "Well we are only missing two hangars right now. Might as well use just two bombs and save some ammunition".

Before Jaune can agree, Pyrrah interrupts saying "Guys, I can see four MiG-21s moving to position on the runway for takeoff!" Jaune spots the planes and says "Yup, I see them. Nora I need a new firing solution, and fast!" Nora frantically punches in a new set of commands to her computer and shouts "Alright! We're hot!"

For the third time, Jaune presses the release button and feels four bombs fall from the B-1. The first pair glide lazily toward the two remaining hangars and destroy them completely, along with several MiG-29s stored within the buildings. The second pair of bombs streak toward the four MiG planes preparing for takeoff on the runway and release the bomblets. The small explosive charges turn the planes into scrap metal as well as gouge a pair of craters into the concrete runway.

Jaune sees that the weapons impacted the targets perfectly and lets out a small sigh of relief. He pulls the B-1 into formation with the B-2s circling the base and flicks the switch to close the plane's bomb bay doors.

The hunter then says into his radio "Hydra, this is White Knight. You are clear to commence your run. Sorry to keep you waiting". The B-52 acknowledges Jaune and opens its bay doors, preparing to deliver the final blow to cripple the White Fang base.

At 10,000 feet, the B-52 pilot waits until the perfect moment and proceeds to release all 51 of the bombers Mark-82 500 pound bombs in one large salvo. As the weapons lack any type of guidance system, the bombs fall almost straight down and detonate upon contact with the ground.

The dozens of explosives rip apart a large part of the runway as well as destroy almost all the main buildings in the center of the base. The B-52 pilot then says over the radio "All Atlas aircraft, this is Hydra. Targets have been destroyed, lets head home".

With that, the B-52 takes its place in the rear of the formation and the four planes begin their long trip back to base. Jaune taps in a quick command to the aircraft's computer and activates the autopilot, allowing for a few moments of relaxation.

Pyrrah looks up through the aircraft's top windscreen and says smiling "Hey Jaune, check out the moon". The blonde pilot looks up and sees the beautiful shattered moon shining brightly in the clear night sky. The two hunters stare at the moon, almost hypnotized by the heavenly white glow for several minutes.

Now much more relaxed, Jaune and Pyrrah take turns calmly piloting the plane in formation back to base. After several more hours of uneventful flying, the sun begins to rise as the bomber planes close within 50km of home base. Jaune squints at the blinding sun and both pilots snap down their helmet's sun visors.

All of the aircraft hear over their radios "All aircraft, this is command. You all did really good out there. I want White Knight and then Hydra landing first, followed by Wraith zero one, then zero two. All four aircraft acknowledge the control tower and Jaune turns the B-1 to line up with the second-longest runway. He then turns to Pyrrah and says "You want to bring her in for a landing?" Pyrrah nods and takes her control stick.

Pyrrah starts rapidly flicking switches on her control panel as she goes through the landing checklist in her head. The girl quietly mutters under her breath as she completes her tasks "Landing gear down, flaps extended, arming switches off, throttles reduced, compensate for crosswind…"

The huntress gracefully lets the wheels contact the runway and cuts the throttle, eventually bringing the plane to a smooth halt. Jaune then says over the radio "Command this is White Knight, we are down safe. Proceeding to our hanger". Pyrrah taxis the B-1 toward the hanger and skillfully parks it in place, then shuts down the engines.

Jaune and the other crewmembers remove their helmets and unstrap themselves from their ejection seats, grateful to finally stand up after more than 11 hours of sitting. The four hunters disembark from the plane and are greeted to the sight of the entire crew cheering wildly. Pyrrah smiles and rubs her eyes, turns to Jaune and says "Alright sweetheart, I'm going to bed. Our flight schedules have been cleared for the next few days. See ya". Jaune watches Pyrrah and his other crewmembers walk off as the ground engineers start working on the plane.

Less than an hour later, Jaune has changed into his normal clothes and walks into the pilot common room. Instantly, over a dozen people run up to him and start congratulating the blonde pilot. One random F-16 pilot walks up and gives Jaune a red marker and gestures to the "Hit List" board and asks "Want to do the honors?" The hunter smiles and walks up to the cork board, then draws a large red X over the photo of the newly destroyed Vacuo base.

This causes the entire room to erupt in cheers and applause, even the normally calm Blake joins in on the excitement. For the first time in a long time, Jaune feels a sense of satisfaction, a sense that he is truly making a difference in the world.


	5. A Show to Remember

Chapter five: A Show to Remember

Just over one week after team JNPR helped destroy the Vacuo base, four military commanders, including General Ironwood are sitting in a dimly lit room in Vale AFB. The topic of discussion in the room is civilian morale and support for the war.

General Ironwood says frustrated "C'mon everyone. There has to be some way we can increase civilian support for this conflict. Right now, people are scared and see the conflict as a means to get more military funding and raise taxes".

Silence permeates the room until one commander replies "How about we do some featured newspaper or magazine interviews with our aircrews? Maybe even some television broadcasts?" General Ironwood sighs and says "It's alright. But it doesn't give the public any idea of how the aircraft are helping the war effort".

Silence blankets the room before the only female commander in the room pipes up and says "Guys, I got it. How about a live demonstration with a bunch of our planes? We get a variety of planes in the air in front of a live crowd and a bunch of cameras and have them show off! Hell, we can even do a live fire demonstration and show some muscle!"

An uncharacteristic grin works its way onto Ironwoods face and he simply says "I like it". The commander continues by saying "After that we have everyone land and have our pilots do a Q&A and let everyone see the planes up close".

The last commander in the room finally speaks up saying "Well, it's good and all but the security risks for something like this are way too huge. What if some random White Fang or Vacuo grunt decides to attend?" The female commander says "Are you kidding? That would almost help! That way we get to show them personally that we aren't to be messed with". Ironwood then says "I agree, we need a show of force and public support and this is a damn near perfect way of getting it. I already know some perfect pilot candidates".

The skeptical commander asks "Who? It has to be a fairly iconic group that people will like". Ironwood replies "Exactly, I am going to use the hunters and huntresses of teams RWBY, JNPR and CFVY. Those guys are very well known and are already pretty much celebrities". The female commander says smiling "Alright, let's make this happen everyone".

About two hours later the teams all receive email messages detailing the plans for the airshow, the teams soon meet up in the pilot common room and the group, including Penny, all take seats around a large table.

Pyrrah starts the conversation by saying "So… what does everyone think of Ironwood's little show he wants us to do?" Coco speaks up first and says "I certainly like the idea, but I think our time should be spent actually fighting instead of doing tricks in front of a crowd". Ruby replies "Oh c'mon Coco. It's going to be fun! We get to fly around and do some cool stuff without worrying about getting shot at. Plus, you guys get to blast away at some targets just for fun!"

Penny agrees with Ruby immediately and Yatsuhashi says "I dunno, Ironwood wants us to do some really precise maneuvers up there". Weiss scoffs and says "You're a fighter pilot. Doing precise maneuvers is your job". The group chuckles a little and Blake says "I am actually pretty thankful for this. We get to fly as well as be in the spotlight. I kinda like the sound of that".

Most of the group mutters in agreement before Coco receives another message on her scroll. She opens the phone and says "Got some more details guys. Looks like the show is going to be held at the base in Vale, near Patch. Both Ruby and Yang's faces light up and Ruby excitedly shouts "That's so close to our house! That means dad can come!" Yang happily hugs her sister and Jaune says with a smile on his face "Alright, let's do this, let's get ready for the show!"

Two weeks later, the teams are in a hanger, making some final preparations for the big airshow in Vale. The aircraft for the three teams are all located in one hanger to make prep for the show easier. At the request of General Ironwood as well as some of the event organizers, the teams are all putting the finishing touches on some personalized paint jobs for their planes.

Blake sits cross-legged on top of her F-22 with an airbrush, applying some final details to the numerous black patterns that closely resemble tribal tattoos that now coat the stealth fighter. Weiss applies a gloss finish to her F-15, the heiress opted to apply a complicated pattern of blue and white paint that gives the impression that the plane is composed of ice. Velvet hands black magic markers to a large group of pilots surrounding her F-35B. The rabbit Faunus previously painted the plane white and is having every pilot in Vale AFB sign their names somewhere on the plane. Fox peels a plastic sheet off the side of his U-2, completing the new set of grey racing stripes. Coco and Yang admire their A-10s, now clad in blindingly reflective gold and black paint with some minor detailing to differentiate the two. Yatsuhashi completes some messy grey detail on his F-16, making the plane look like it is made of Iron, complete with a yellow and purple "Remnant Fitness" logo on the right wing. Ruby and Penny remove some stencils from their SR-71. The pair added a blood red storm cloud with a lightning bolt on the belly of the plane with similarly colored text on top of the aircraft that says "Mach 3.5! Fastest on Remnant!" Finally, JNPR's B-1 is now a vibrant and colorful collage of graffiti style artwork featuring different styles of plant life, landscapes, cars and numerous other works of abstract art.

With the airborne works of art now complete, Ironwood and another slightly disheveled commander with a wrinkled uniform and a clipboard enter the hangar as the teams are making their preparations for flight. Ironwood shouts "Hey everyone, get over here. I want to have a word with all of you."

The twelve hunters gather in a semi-circle around Ironwood and the other commander. The general then says "Hi guys, this commander Sampson. He pretty much organized this entire event by himself". The exhausted commander nods and says "I just want to go over the rules of engagement for the live-fire parts of the show. Firstly, you are not to arm or fire any weapons while you are over land, only while engaging targets over the water. Second, minimum altitude over the airfield is set at 1,000 feet unless otherwise specified. Finally, this should be obvious but there is to be no firing of weapons in the direction of the shore and airfield. General?"

Ironwood nods and says "Look, I know this show seems unnecessary, and that some of you feel like it is a waste of resources and time. Really, it is to give the people a sense of security that no amount of talking about it on the news will". The group of hunters agree with the general and a silence falls over the small crowd. Ironwood then raises his voice and says "Now let's give the folks in Patch a show!"

An hour later, the group of planes are in a loose formation at 20,000 feet in the air, making the short flight to Patch from Vale. After a quick mid-air refueling from a pair of KC-135 tankers, Blake addresses all the planes from her spot in the front of the formation. "Alright everyone, we are only 30 minutes from Patch at this point, Red Reaper, you guys get up to 85,000 so you can give your entrance".

Ruby acknowledges Blake and puts the SR-71 into an acceleration dive to obtain the speed to reach 85,000 feet. Weiss quickly goes over the list of events for the show in her head one last time.

First Ruby will do a Mach 3.2 pass over the crowd at max altitude, resulting in a massive sonic boom to get everyone excited. Then, everyone else does a low-altitude pass over the shore in order of the announcer. We then do three different stunt maneuvers while Ruby slows down and descends while Fox flies to 70,000 feet in a rapid climb to give everyone a view from the stratosphere. Then we land, refuel, answer some questions and let everyone get up close with the planes. Then it will be time for the live-fire demonstration.

Several dozen kilometers away in Patch, a large group of nearly 700 spectators gather near the shore of Patch's Atlas airfield. The area for spectators on the paved section near the shore has numerous lines of bleachers as well as fast food trucks and stands selling all manner of t-shirts, posters and model planes.

At the gates a man with black hair, a white overcoat and a grey dress shirt as well as a red cloak waits in line with a partially empty flask in his hand. The man casually walks through the gates until he is feels a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. The sharply dressed man looks to his left and sees an Atlas soldier holding onto him. The soldier says "Excuse me, there is no outside food or drinks allowed in here". The man makes eye contact with the soldier and says in a slightly raspy voice "Do you have any idea who I am?" Confused, the soldier replies "Well, uh. No".

A smile works its way onto the man's face as he simply says "Perfect" before brushing the soldier's hand off and disappearing into the crowd in search of a certain blonde hunter with a Corgi.

Back in the air, Ruby meticulously works the throttle to line up with a timer on her HUD so that the sonic boom will wash over the crowd at the right time. Ruby says "Hey Penny, you think we got enough fuel to land comfortably?" Penny processes the information and says "We will if you decelerate right after the sonic boom".

As soon as Penny finishes speaking, the two aviators hear the announcer on the ground say via radio "Allll right folks we have a crazy show planned for you today! In just a few moments Captain Ruby Rose and Lieutenant Colonel Penny Polendina will blast by at 85,000 feet directly overhead at 3.2 times the speed of sound in an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane! Everyone had better cover their ears in 5…4…3…2…

BANG

As the crowd down below erupts in cheers, Ruby pulls back on the throttles and allows the Blackbird to slow down as she pushes the control stick down to guide the plane towards the ground.

Hearing the sonic boom over the radio from microphones on the ground, the planes take a straight-line formation with 500 meters separating the planes as the aircraft fly at low speed only 250 feet above the ground. The announcer then says "Alright! Now for the main event! Coming in low over the shore we have the aviators of teams RWBY, JNPR and CFVY!" The planes cross in front of the crowd as the announcer calls out the planes as they pass by.

"First, in an F-22 Raptor stealth fighter we have Blake Belladonna! Followed by Weiss Shnee in an F-15 Eagle, Velvet Scarlatina in an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter and Yatsuhashi Daichi in an F-16 Fighting Falcon. Next, we have Yang Xiao Long and Coco Adel in a pair of A-10 Warthog attack jets. Now we have Fox Alistair in a U-2S Dragon Lady and finally, all of team JNPR in a B-1 Lancer!"

The crowd cheers wildly as the aviators perform a wide turn to set up the first stunt. JNPR, Yang and Coco hang back while the other five pilots turn back towards the base. Fox makes a low pass over the crowd then proceeds to pull up and begin a corkscrew-like vertical ascent to reach 70,000 feet. The announcer then says "For our first stunt we have Weiss, Blake, Velvet and Yatsuhashi performing what we like to call, an Eagle and Raptor sandwich".

As the four fighter planes approach the shore, Weiss and Blake maneuver their planes so that they are directly above and below one another. Slowly closing in, Velvet and Yatsuhashi take their positions below and above the F-15 and F-22. The four planes compress inward, leaving practically no space between the planes. Blake nervously looks up and sees the belly of Yatsuhashi's F-16, the cat Faunus sees that there are only 8 or so inches separating the planes as the four-fighter aircraft make a slow turn to pass over the crowd, drawing several cheers and gasps of excitement as well as fear.

The planes separate carefully and fall back out of view while Coco and Yang aim their A-10s directly at each other at maximum throttle while only 100 feet above the water. The announcer then says "For the next maneuver we have Yang and Coco performing a twin loop!"

Yang and Coco blast by each other, barely missing and throw their planes into a steep climb. Coco checks her instruments and sees that she is losing speed rapidly, the two pilots pull back harder on their control sticks and allow the planes to lose speed and loop. The planes blast by each other a second time as the pair fall towards and gain speed rapidly. When the planes reach the peak of their ascent, the two pilots pull up and are flying towards each other again, albeit much faster than before.

Just a second before impact, the two planes re-position themselves so that they are flying with their wingtips perpendicular to the ground, allowing the planes to blow by each other a third time.

Back in the crowd, Taiyang accidently lets "Holy Shit!" slip out as Yang and Coco pass each other the third time. Several upset parents shoot Taiyang dirty looks as the blonde hunter lets out a sigh. Qrow chuckles and says "Lemme guess, you wish they were just fighting giant monsters, Right?" Taiyang nods rapidly as the two A-10s peel off to set up for the third stunt. Qrow smiles and says "Just don't have a heart attack old man". Taiyang responds by belting Qrow in the shoulder.

The announcer says excitedly "For our third and final maneuver we have a special trick called threading the needle!" Yang and Coco, as well as the other four fighter aircraft form a loose circle formation and reduce their speed. Jaune reduces the B-1's altitude and looks up at the circle of smaller planes.

Jaune waits for the perfect moment when the planes are in front of the spectators and yanks back on the control stick, sending the B-1 cleanly through the circle of smaller planes and causing the entire crowd to erupt in cheers.

Weiss lets out a sigh of relief as she sees the B-1 shoot toward the sky. The white-haired pilot says "Alright, good job everyone. Let's head for the runway". All the pilots acknowledge Weiss and Velvet says "Hey Fox, how are you doing up there?"

Fox hits his mic button and says "Doing just fine, I never get tired of this view". At 70,000 feet, Fox can easily see the curvature of Remnant below him and the blackness of space above him. He takes a second to imagine what Ruby and penny can see at 85,000 feet. Before reducing for his throttle and descending, he gives the camera on his dashboard broadcasting to the jumbotrons back near the spectators a quick wave as seeing his face is nearly impossible through the polarized visor of the spacesuit.

As the planes come in for a landing Ruby hears in her mic "Red Reaper this is command, state your fuel levels. Ruby checks the gauges and says "We have 15,000 kilograms left. A bit less than I would like". The commander then says "Do you mind doing one more pass over the shore at max throttle? After that you can land immediately". Ruby deliberates for a second then says with a grin "Tell everyone to cover their ears".

On the ground, the announcer says "We got one more treat for you everyone. In just a second Ruby and Penny will be performing a full-throttle fly by at low altitude in their SR-71! I advise everyone cover their ears!"

Ruby angles herself to be parallel to the shore and forces the throttles forward, producing a pair of massive exhaust flames from the SR-71's afterburners. The plane blows by the spectators at Mach 1.6, the extreme noise and sonic boom trigger dozens of car alarms and rattle some windows out of their frames.

The red-haired huntress immediately reduces her throttles and turns herself toward the runway, hoping to land before running out of her fuel. The SR-71's wheels gently touch the ground and Ruby applies the brakes and pulls the chute to reduce the speed.

With all the planes now safely on the ground, the pilots taxi their planes toward the display area near the spectator stands closer to the woods in the back of the base and park. Safe and sound. Ruby throws open the canopy of the Blackbird and steps out of the cockpit. She is greeted by the sight of her uncle, father and corgi along with large group of others. The pilot smiles and removes the helmet from her red and black spacesuit and the group cheers wildly.

After all the planes are parked safely, the group of 13 hunters and huntresses make their way to a small stage while still in their flight gear. Each of the pilots grab a microphone and begin answering questions proposed by the spectators. As Velvet explains how her plane can land vertically, a dog Faunus with his hood up pulls out his scroll and turns on its GPS function before dumping the phone in a nearby trash bin. The suspicious figure then leaves the show area and hops into his car, then speeds off.

250 kilometers away, Mercury Black casually pilots his grey and black SU-27 low over the ground with 20 MiG-21s following close behind. Mercury sees a direction indicator on his plane's radar screen giving away the location of the Vale base. Mercury calls to the other planes over the radio "Alright, we got the location. Everyone stick close to me or I'll blow you out of the damn sky before Vale even gets a chance.

The planes acknowledge Mercury and turn to travel directly at the Atlas base. Mercury checks the MiG-21s around him and smiles as he sees the mix of anti-air missiles, bombs and unguided rockets carried by the MiGs while Mercury's plane carries only air-to air missiles.

Back at the Atlas base, the pilots disperse toward their planes to answer some more questions, pose for photos and get the aircraft ready for the live fire demonstration. Yang arrives at her A-10 and pulls her flight glove off, revealing her robotic right arm. The blonde huntress happily poses for pictures and lets various fans get close and personal with the attack jet, even letting some kids sit in the cockpit.

Qrow casually struts by and says to his niece and says "Huh, so this is what you have been wasting your time with". Yang happily hugs her uncle and says happily "Yup! Isn't she beautiful?" Qrow runs his hand over the massive rotary cannon mounted internally underneath the cockpit. The hunter seems impressed and Yang asks "Want to see how to fly this thing?" Qrow smiles and simply says "Enlighten me". Yang lets Qrow sit in the cockpit and shows her uncle all the basic controls, especially the weapon controls.

Qrow smiles and says "I'll admit, this is a pretty sweet machine you have here. But your sister's plane is crazy, it looks more complicated than a rocket ship". Yang nods as she sees several trucks filled to the brim with weapons for the live-fire demonstration. The blonde turns to her uncle and says "Unfortunately you gotta get out now Qrow, only flight crew are allowed near the planes when we are arming and fueling them".

The hunter casually hops out of the cockpit and says "I expect some big explosions from you". Yang laughs and responds "Don't worry, you will".

The aircrews start fueling and arming the planes for the combat demonstration. A group of teenage boys look on with excitement as a belt of 20mm rounds are fed to Blake's F-22 while the cat Faunus gets her flight gear ready.

Without warning, a radio call comes in on the radios of the pilots. A panicked commander says "Attention all pilots! Attention all pilots! We have 21 unidentified planes moving at high speed toward our base. They were just picked up on our early-warning radar. I want all combat-capable planes in the air defending the base while backup arrives. GET TO IT PILOTS!"

The showgrounds turn into somewhat controlled chaos as civilians are rushed to the base's underground bunkers. Qrow finds Taiyang in the panicked mob and says "You help make sure these people are safe! I'm staying here". The blonde hunter nods and runs off as the ground crews work furiously to finish preparing the planes.

The commander says over the radio "I want Red Reaper, White Knight and Hellhound to takeoff and get well clear of the fighting, we have a backup squadron of five F-22s already on their way". Ruby, Fox and Jaune acknowledge their commander as the crews finish preparing the planes.

As the hostile planes enter the Atlas airspace, automated and radar-guided air defenses spring to life along with the manned defenses. As the planes cross within one kilometer of the base, the Anti-Aircraft guns roar to life, filling the sky with 20mm armor-piercing rounds that shred three of the MiG-21s as the remaining planes release their bombs, striking mostly patches of ground and some sections of runway. An instant later, the base's surface to air missile systems fire off half a dozen missiles, destroying an additional two MiGs.

Mercury sees the five planes being blown out of the sky and angrily shouts "Get the hell out of the way of those AA weapons! Spread yourselves out and use your rockets! I want the guys on the ground wiped off the map!"

The group of MiGs spread out as instructed and make a wide turn as the ground weapons continue furiously shooting at the attacking planes. One MiG pilot sees a man on the ground clad in white and black near the tree line holding a rather large weapon. The pilot aims his gunsight at the lone hunter and fires a stream of 23mm rounds from his plane's cannon.

As the projectiles harmlessly impact the ground around Qrow, he changes his weapon into its scythe form and stabs the tip into the ground. The hunter carefully sights in the twin barrels of his weapon as the MiG continues furiously firing. Qrow calmly lets out his breath and squeezes the trigger.

Two bolts of kinetic energy fly out of the barrels and impact the plane after a full second and a half of flight. The first bolt impacts the base of the left wing, tearing out a large chunk of material while the second bolt crashes through the canopy and kills the pilot. The now uncontrolled aircraft crashes into the dense woods, ripping the aircraft apart in a fiery explosion. The hunter smiles at his handiwork before seeing a small group of people running terrified toward the bunkers. Qrow immediately stows his weapon and runs to help the scared civilians.

Meanwhile, Jaune and Pyrrah maneuver their B-1 onto the runway as quickly as possible. Jaune exhales angrily and says "I wish we could do something instead of just run". Pyrrah replies "We will eventually, let's just get out of here in one piece". Just as Jaune receives takeoff clearance, a MiG pilot fires off half a dozen unguided rockets toward the B-1, two of which find their mark. The first rocket impacts the plane's #4 engine, gouging a hole in it and destroying the compressor fan, rendering it useless. The second rocket hits the top part of the plane's body and detonates, leaving a thankfully small hole and leaving several important hydraulic and fuel lines unharmed.

The four crewmembers feel the impacts rock the plane and Pyrrah screams "SHIT! We just lost engine four!" Jaune kills the power to the damaged engine and says "It's fine, we can run on only two if we have to". Ren speaks up and says "Jaune, just get us the hell out of here". The pilot answers Ren by pushing the throttles to maximum to send the plane screaming down the runway. Jaune lifts off the ground and retracts the landing gear, staying only 150 feet above the tops of the trees.

Pyrrah says to the commander in the control tower "White Knight is away, be advised, we have taken some pretty major structural damage but essential systems are intact". The commander responds saying "We hear you White Knight, we will be ready for you back at Edwards, good luck". With that, Jaune keeps the throttles pinned and heads for home.

Back in the now abandoned show area, Velvet receives an "all clear" signal from the tower and opens up her throttle, sending the plane vertically into the sky. At 500 feet Velvet checks her instruments and hears a missile warning alarm. The rabbit Faunus looks up and sees both a MiG headed straight for her as well as a newly-fired R-60 short range missile.

Velvet's eyes go wide as she absentmindedly pulls the trigger. The Vulcan cannon inside the gun pod mounted underneath the F-35 fires off 100 rounds. The slugs impact the missile first and disable the detonators and the engine, rendering the weapon harmless. The rest of the rounds impact the MiG and violently rip the plane apart. Velvet orients her engine to provide the F-35 with forward thrust and says into her radio "Jackrabbit engaging!"

Blake taps her foot on the floor of her cockpit nervously, the cat-eared Faunus has not moved as she is currently being blocked by Yang and Coco taxing to the runway with Weiss, Fox and Ruby in front. The huntress looks up and sees Velvet angrily chasing down a MiG while two others stay on her tail, fruitlessly trying to get a missile lock on the F-35.

With her patience at an end, Blake says into her mic "Command, this is Panther. Requesting permission to takeoff by cutting across the field. I gotta get into the air! Jackrabbit can't handle this by herself!" A tense moment of silence draws out in the F-22 cockpit. Blake hears "We copy Panther, do whatever you have to do".

Blake smiles and pushes her plane to full afterburner. The F-22 cuts across a grassy field while the huntress pilot desperately pulls up to ease the plane into the air. Blake retracts her landing gear and says "Panther engaging!" The cat Faunus checks her radar screen and turns to assist Velvet.

Moments later, the aviators see Weiss' F-15 takeoff and hear over the radio "Sabre engaging. I'm going after the leader in the SU-27". Before the commander can respond, the slightly husky voice of Mercury Black comes over the radio saying "Aww, the little heiress wants to take me down. How cute!"

Yang interjects, saying "Get off our frequency asshole!" The pilots hear Mercury laugh and say "You know I've really missed you Yang. Tell you what, how about I make your left arm match you're right?" Yang calmly says with venom in her voice "Sounds pretty good. How about I re-unite father and son?" Mercury stays silent for a moment out of shock before screaming "YOU LITTLE BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!"

Just as Mercury has his outburst, Fox eases his U-2 into the air and says "Hellhound is away, proceeding to 70,000 feet". The spy plane blasts through the cloud layer and the color slowly fades from the sky, giving Fox a sense of security as he is so high above the fighting. Fox then says "Alright, I'm at altitude, proceeding back to base".

On the ground, Ruby prepares her Blackbird for takeoff. The redheaded huntress says to her partner. Penny, will we have enough fuel to get to 85,000?" The girl in the rear cockpit of the SR-71 responds "No way, we can only take off with a partial fuel load otherwise our landing gear might fail. Plus, we can't risk getting a tanker over here, they will be sitting ducks".

Ruby acknowledges her partner and says "Got it, let's just get out of here." Ruby pushes the throttles forward and the Blackbird surges down the runway and eases into the air at full afterburner with Yang and Coco following closely behind. Coco says "Don't worry Red Reaper, we have you covered. Just get out of here!" Ruby keeps the throttles at full and instantly outruns the pair of A-10s, but not the MiG that pulls in behind the Blackbird.

Ruby sees "Missile Alert" flash repeatedly against her HUD as the MiG takes aim at the defenseless SR-71. Ruby shouts "This is Red Reaper! I need some assistance!" Blake hears the cry for help and says "I gotcha Red Reaper". Blake obtains a lock on the MiG chasing Ruby and fires one of her F-22's six mid-range AMRAAM missiles.

The bottom weapons bay doors of the F-22 open for just enough time for the missile to fall out then shuts immediately. The engine on the missile ignites, propelling the weapon at Mach 4 toward the MiG. The missile impacts the hostile plane on the engine and detonates, blowing the rear of the plane apart and leaving the front half spiraling wildly out of control before crashing into the earth.

Blake says "Hostile neutralized Red Reaper, you are clear down the line. Only 13 hostiles remaining everybody!" The cat Faunus closes her eyes, clears her head and thinks "Just hold them off until help arrives. In the meantime, give them hell".

Yatsuhashi finally takes off and announces "Samurai engaging. Who needs assistance?" Weiss responds "Sabre here, I need some help with Mercury!" Yatsuhashi acknowledges Weiss as the huntress struggles to keep up with Mercury's combination of rapid turns and rolls. The F-16 quickly closes the distance and maintains its position behind Weiss' F-15. Mercury executes a hard turn and zeroes his sights on Yang's comparatively slow A-10. Yang sees the SU-27 on her tail and reduces her altitude even further to only 100 feet and leads the hostile plane over the ocean.

Mercury ignores the nearly suicidal low altitude and fires his SU-27's Gsh-301 30mm auto cannon. Yang does her best to dodge the rounds by sweeping her plane from side to side but the A-10 still takes several hits. The blonde huntress ignores the hits as all of the 30mm rounds are absorbed by the A-10's large amount of titanium armor.

Mercury keeps his finger squeezing the trigger until the autocannon's 150 rounds are gone, ultimately proving to be a waste of ammunition. Mercury slams his fist on the control board in anger while Weiss and Yatsuhashi easily catch up.

Weiss says "Samurai, keep him distracted. I'm going for missile lock". Yatsuhashi acknowledges Weiss and immediately starts firing his F-16's 20mm Vulcan cannon at the SU-27. Mercury takes a few hits from the 20mm cannon and pulls up, leaving Yang alone and heading for the sky.

Weiss and Yatsuhashi give chase as the two fighters gain altitude rapidly. Mercury suddenly levels out and arms a mid-range R-27 missile and fires at Yang's A-10. Yang turns hard and releases several Infrared flares but the missile continues tracking. At the last second, Yang releases a chaff pod that finally disrupts the missile's tracking systems, causing the missile to crash into the water.

Yatsuhashi and Weiss catch up and the F-16 starts firing again without mercy. Mercury's patience runs out and the SU-27 does a half-loop and fires a second R-27 at Yatsuhashi's F-16. Unlike Yang, Yatsuhashi doesn't hit the "Countermeasures" button in time and the missile deals a glancing blow to the F-16, destroying the internal cannon and heavily damaging the air intake for the engine as well as the radar system stored in the nose of the F-16. Yatsuhashi is unharmed thanks to his aura which is reduced by half.

Weiss sees her comrade take the hit and yells "Yatsu! You there?! Please Respond!" Yatsuhashi takes several large breaths to calm himself down and says "I'm here sabre. Plane is not doing too good. Cannon is gone, not to mention my engine and radar aren't performing so good".

Weiss responds "Just eject, the plane is trashed!" The stubborn F-16 pilot responds "No! I can still fight but there is no way I can take out Mercury like this. I'm helping the others with all the MiGs, they're outnumbered three to one over there. Good luck".

Weiss sees the F-16 peel off toward the four other planes combating the MiGs and whispers under her breath "God he is stubborn". Mercury then says over the radio "Damn, I didn't kill your little swordsman friend? I really am off my game. Should've just broken his neck during the Vytal Festival and saved myself the trouble".

The white-haired huntress spots the SU-27 performing a wide turn and says harshly "Oh it's on, you legless freak". Weiss accelerates her F-15 to Mach 2.2 and easily catches up to the comparatively slower SU-27 as Mercury begins a steep dive and crosses back over land. The F-15 pilot keeps pace and reduces her speed as the pair of fighter aircraft are low above the treetops while rapidly turning side to side. The huntress pilot arms a sidewinder missile as Mercury dives even lower, nearly scraping along the trees.

Weiss thinks to herself "God, if you so much as sneeze at that altitude while going that fast you be a goner". The F-15 pilot ignores her instincts and her years of pilot training as she further reduces her altitude to keep up with Mercury.

The silver-haired criminal says as he continues to outmaneuver Weiss "You can't beat me heiress! I'm still holding all the aces!" Weiss obtains a missile lock and further closes the distance between her and Mercury who continues to rant angrily as the planes continue their complex airborne dance. "Cinder is going to put you in your place! She's going to hit Vale, Atlas, Mistral and burn all those places to the fuckin' ground!"

Weiss coldly and calmly says with her finger around the trigger "Hey, do you think Emerald will cry when she hears you got blown into microscopic chunks of bone and flesh?" Mercury stutters "Wha…" as Weiss fires the sidewinder missile from a very short distance.

The missile's engine ignites and closes the distance between the F-15 and the SU-27 in no time. The explosive warhead detonates underneath the plane at the point where the cockpit section connects to the rest of the body. The explosion rips the middle of the plane apart and sends flames and shrapnel flying at hypersonic speed through the cockpit, instantly shattering Mercury's aura and dealing him several crippling injuries.

The pilot's right hand struggles to pull on the handle of the ejection seat with no effect. Mercury glances down and sees one of his robotic legs separated from his thigh impaled through the seat. The grey-haired pilot looks up one last time and sees green as the remains of the SU-27 impact the trees at 200 meters per second and rip the aircraft and it's lone occupant to shreds in a massive ball of orange and red flame.

Weiss exhales and says "Mercury is down! I repeat, Mercury is eliminated! 12 hostiles remaining". The huntress hears several of her comrades cheer but her moment of satisfaction is cut short by the sound of several 23mm rounds impacting her F-15. Weiss looks around frantically and sees a MiG-21 behind her. Before the heiress can react, an AMRAAM missile impacts the MiG and blows it apart. The huntress then sees Yatsuhashi's Iron-colored F-16 blow by and hears "I have your back Sabre! Let's finish these guys off!"

Back in the thick of the fight, Coco struggles to outmaneuver a pair of MiGs that chase the fashion-conscious huntress without mercy. Coco feels her A-10 take more hits from the cannons of the MiGs. As the trio of aircraft pass over the airfield, one of the planes is ripped apart by Anti-aircraft fire from the ground.

Blake sees Coco in trouble and positions her F-22 behind the slow-moving duo. The cat Faunus announces "Vulcan, hold steady. I got the guy on your tail". Blake sights in the MiG and unleashes a 200-round burst from her F-22's 20mm cannon that tear the hostile plane asunder. Blake asks her friend "You doing okay Vulcan?" Coco looks at her diagnostics screen disapprovingly and says "She isn't doing too well but she is holding together".

Growing impatient, Velvet shouts into her mic at the commander "Where is out damn backup?!" The commander replies "Less than two minutes away, Jackrabbit. They have been on their afterburners the entire time. Just hold out a little longer!" The rabbit Faunus spots Weiss fruitlessly spraying 20mm rounds at a MiG attempting to get a missile lock on Yatsuhashi's damaged F-16. Velvet says "Sabre, disengage the MiG before you hit Samurai on accident. I have him". Weiss considers objecting before Yatsuhashi shouts "Just get this guy off my back!" Velvet locks one of her sidewinder missiles onto the MiG from several kilometers away and fires without hesitation.

The sidewinder missile hones in on it's target while accelerating to Mach 2.5. The explosive detonates upon impact and blows apart the MiG into a spray of shrapnel which Weiss barely dodges in time. A new voice crackles through the pilot's radios saying "Atlas aircraft this is Jester 01 on station with Jester 02 through 05. Ready to assist". Yang says "Jester squad, we need immediate assistance with these MiGs, do you copy?" The pilot replies "We copy. Jester squad is in hot".

The five F-22s release one sidewinder missile each, four of which find their marks and destroy the respective targets. The leader then says "Only four hostiles remaining. We have the situation from here. The rest of you get back to base". The remaining MiG-21s all group together and accelerate to full throttle away from the base. Jester squad's five F-22s chase down the MiGs out of the base's airspace and continue their pursuit.

Blake retracts her helmet's sun visor and wipes her sweaty brow. She then says "Alright everyone, our job is done. Let's head for home". The five other planes acknowledge the cat Faunus and fall into a loose formation behind the F-22 in the direction of Vale AFB.

Several hours later, the 13 hunters and huntresses, along with General Ironwood sit in a private room in Vale AFB. The group sits in silence for several minutes and Jaune breaks the silence by saying "Well that was a complete friggin disaster". Yang replies "Yeah, no shit". Ironwood interjects, saying "Everyone, calm down. Although this is a nightmare we have to bounce back".

Pyrrah says "What were the losses on the ground?" Ironwood stays quiet for a second and says "No civilians were killed but a bunch of them got really badly injured, mostly by trampling over each other when the attack started. Also… about 25 or so servicemen were killed on the ground either in the initial bombing or the rocket strikes".

The group remains quiet before Ironwoods scroll buzzes. The general looks at the phone and says "Huh, looks like Jester squad was able to wipe out the rest of the MiGs". Weiss says "Serves them right trying to attack innocent people like that".

Ironwood replies "Speaking of which, looks like you were able to bag one of our most wanted. Right miss Shnee?" Weiss slowly nods. Ironwood stands up and says "Well I guess it's a silver lining of sorts. Anyway, I gotta go, the press is going to be all over my ass for awhile. You did good out there everyone".

The hunters and huntresses accept Ironwoods compliment as the general walks out the door.


	6. A Worthwhile Promotion

**A/N: Hi everyone, I just wanted to thank those who have been supporting this story so far. Also, I changed up the pace of this chapter to diverge from the usual action and fighting. Please let me know if you want to see these types of chapters more often or if you have any other suggestions. Bye :)**

Chapter six: A Worthwhile Promotion

Ruby feels her SR-71 slowly grind to a halt upon arriving in its designated parking area in Edwards AFB. The huntress turns off the engines and de-activates the numerous electrical systems before opening her canopy and removing her helmet. Ruby climbs out of the cockpit and steps onto the tarmac as her RSO, Penny dismounts from her seat in the rear cockpit. Ruby looks at the Blackbird and lets out a slow sigh while saying to herself "Another day of taking pictures and being shot at".

As Penny aids the ground crew in servicing the Blackbird, Ruby heads to her division's locker room and heads for the showers after removing her space suit. Ruby lets the boiling hot water wash away the sweat from the mission as she goes over the events of her flight.

The mission was supposed to be to simply photograph some areas known for smuggling weapons by the White Fang. Then came multiple surface-launched missiles, half a dozen MiG-29s chasing her halfway across the country while trying every trick they could muster to destroy the Blackbird, all to no avail. Ruby says under her breath "I want to fight back, not just run".

After an hour of deliberation back in her room, Ruby walks the short distance to her commander's office with a sheet of paper in her hand labeled "TRANSFER REQUEST FORM" and knocks on the door. Ruby hears "C'mon in" and nervously opens the door. The commander rises to his feet and says in his calm, Slavic accent "Ah, miss Rose. What can I do for ya?"

Ruby makes eye contact with the 6' 10'' man and shivers slightly at the sight of his prominent tri-arrow tattoo on the side of his bald head. The huntress nervously says "Mr. Arjuna. I have a favor that I need to ask of you… I'm requesting a transfer". Instead of looking shocked, the commander simply nods and says "Okay then… Is there any specific reason for this?" Ruby nods and replies "Yes. To be frank, I feel like I would be better suited to be a combat pilot. I know that information is the most powerful weapon there is, but I feel like I should be fighting alongside my comrades. This is probably a short-sighted decision, but it feels right".

The stoic commander works his jaw around in silent contemplation before taking the paper from Ruby and signing "Jun Arjuna" at the bottom. He says to the huntress "Well, I was going to show this to you later, but now is as good a time as any. We might have just the thing for you. Follow me".

The unit commander leads Ruby through a series of hallways before coming to an elevator. A quick ride into the large underground section leaves the pair in the bowls of Edwards AFB. Jun says "We have been doing some more salvaging lately and we have found a couple more aircraft types from places that were probably museums. As far as we know, they are one of a kind. Jun swipes his key card on sensor and a set of double-doors opens.

The pair enter the darkened room before the lights turn on, revealing a plane both very similar and very different to the SR-71. Ruby approaches and sees that the basic shape remains the same, but with slightly altered wings and nose. Additionally, the plane is slightly smaller than a normal Blackbird with the same second cockpit.

Ruby asks while still in a state of amazement "What is this beautiful thing?" Jun responds with a smirk "This is a YF-12A. From what we gathered, it was made by the same people that built the SR-71s. However, this has a very distinct difference from a normal Blackbird". Ruby says excitedly "What is it?!" Jun responds "This thing can actually defend itself. In addition to its superior speed and altitude capibilities, it can also carry air to air missiles."

The huntress nearly faints out of happiness as she says "I want it. I want it noooowwwww". Jun chuckles and says "Not so fast. Although it is very similar to the SR-71, you have to do two months of fighter training to be battle-ready". The commander pulls out his scroll and taps a set of commands into the phone. Jun says "Alright, looks like you are going to be starting your training tomorrow with Major Belladonna. You know Blake, right?" Ruby nods with a huge grin on her face. With a small smile, Jun adds "Also, you are going to need a new call sign because this is a new plane in a new unit. Do you have one in mind?" Ruby thinks "Huh, plane is really fast. It can fight but it is still pretty fragile…" The pilot grins and responds with a smile "Cheetah".

Jun nods and says after sighing "I know that I should feel proud of you, but you should not be so eager to fight. You might've started fighting when you were young but I started when I was six, and I didn't have a choice. Be grateful that you did". Ruby silently nods and looks at her feet. The huntress says "Anyway, I should probably get going. Thanks again Mr. Arjuna". Jun nods and Ruby leaves the room. The bald commander grins slightly and says "Crazy kid".

The next day, Ruby casually walks onto the Tarmac toward the group of T-38C trainer aircraft. The redhead huntress sees a certain cat Faunus patiently waiting by one of the trainer planes. Ruby excitedly jogs over to Blake and wraps the cat Faunus in a hug. Blake says while grinning "Alright trainee. You set to go?" Ruby responds by nodding rapidly. Blake giggles and replies "Excellent. Basically, we are going to do some practice dogfighting. I want to gauge where you stand and how many improvements you need to make". Ruby responds "Awesome! Let's get into the air!" Blake nods and the pair of huntresses make ready for their training session.

Six hours later, Ruby is laying down on one of the couches in the pilot common room, staring at the ceiling in a state of disbelief. Weiss walks by and sees the red huntress laying down. The heiress rolls her eyes and asks "So, how did the training session with Blake go?" Ruby responds in a monotone voice "She killed me 21 times. I couldn't even hit her once".

Weiss lets out a loud snort and starts laughing hysterically. Ruby gives Weiss a hurt look and responds "It's not funny!" Wiping the tears out of her eyes, Weiss says while still laughing "What, did you think you would become a fighter pilot in a day?" The statement shuts Ruby up quickly.

Weiss sits next to Ruby and asks "So, when is your next flight in that fancy new plane of yours?" Ruby responds "It's at sunset. Penny also transferred so she will be my Weapon Systems Officer. We are going to get used to the plane and do some practicing with firing while Blake acts as a chase plane". Weiss smiles and says "Well, it does sound fun. I'm stuck with doing maintenance forms for my squad. I love those guys but the work involved is simply absurd". Ruby nods and says "I see what you mean. By the way, how are things with you your dad going?" Weiss groans and simply responds "Badly. He still thinks I should quit fighting and marry up. No changes there".

For several minutes, an awkward silence hangs in the air due to Ruby not being able to think of a response, despite the news being nothing new. The buzzing of the red-haired huntress' scroll breaks up the quiet, alerting her that the second training flight of the day would begin soon. Ruby jumps up from the couch and says smiling "Alright, I gotta go Weiss. I'll see you when my flight is done". Weiss gives Ruby a smile in return as the red huntress bolts out of the room with a wave of rose petals in her wake.

Later, Ruby happily jogs up to the YF-12 clad in her custom red and black spacesuit. The huntress runs her fingers across the non-reflective titanium skin of the huge aircraft. The small ground crew, including Penny, surrounding the aircraft remove the wide fuel hose from the side of the plane. The crew chief gives the pair of huntress aviators a thumbs up, the signal to prepare for takeoff. Both Penny and Ruby sit in their respective cockpits after priming their ejection seats and donning their helmets.

Ruby attaches the oxygen hose to her space suit and turns on the radio that allows her and Penny to communicate. The red huntress says "Comm check, you hear me Penny?" The robotic huntress cheerily responds "I hear you Ruby! Let's get this show on the road before it gets too dark out". Ruby acknowledges her Weapon Systems Officer and the two aviators go over the extensive pre-flight checklist.

As the pair of aviators make ready for their flight, the ground crew loads a single AIM-47A missile into the weapons bay of the YF-12. Meanwhile, another pair of team members position hydraulic drive shafts underneath the engines to give the plane's engines enough power to sustain thrust.

Ruby looks at her gauges and sees the RPM meter climb on her right engine before a massive roar engulfs the tarmac. With the first engine running properly, the second soon spins up as well. The red-haired huntress hears on her radio "Cheetah, this is tower. You and Panther are cleared for takeoff and live-fire test". Blake responds "Panther here, I copy you, tower". Ruby then says "Cheetah here, proceeding to designated takeoff runway".

Both Blake and Ruby position their aircraft parallel to each other on the runway. Blake pushes her F-22 to maximum throttle and surges down the runway before gracefully lifting off. Ruby looks at the radar screen on her dashboard and the stealth fighter completely vanishes from the YF-12's sensors. Once Blake is well clear of the runway, Ruby opens up her throttles, pushing the 56,000 kilogram airplane into motion.

Once both planes are airborne, Ruby links up with Blake at 5,000 feet in the fading sunlight as the pair pass over the boarder of the exclusion zone. Blake looks at the huge plane and says "Alright Cheetah, we are well clear of the base. Show me what you can do!" Ruby smiles and says to Penny "Alright, let's get set up".

Penny flicks several arming switches and turns a dial to select the appropriate weapon slot in the YF-12's weapon bay. Once finished, Penny says "Alright Rubes! We're hot!" With no hesitation and a grin on her face, Ruby squeezes the trigger.

On the belly of the interceptor, the set of weapon bay doors open and the 360 kilogram missile releases from its mounts. After three seconds of freefall, the solid-fueled rocket engine on the missile ignites and nearly blinds both Blake and Ruby in a huge flash of white. Blake slowly opens her eyes and sees the missile streak off into the distance at Mach 4.

Blake giggles and says to Ruby "Nice! So, how did you like your first missile launch?" Ruby cracks her eyes open and says "Pretty fun! But I'm putting my visor down next time". Blake replies "Well, from what I can tell the weapon systems on your plane are working perfectly. Let's head back home when you're set to go". Ruby acknowledges Blake and gives her gauges a quick check. The red huntress glances up and sees a small flash of white with the words "MISSILE IMPACT" flashing on her HUD. This sends a shiver down Ruby's spine as the huntresses maneuver the YF-12 and the F-22 back towards Edwards AFB.

Upon returning home, the moon is hanging low in the night sky. The trio of huntresses park their planes in spaces directly next to each other. As Ruby shuts off the engines and silence envelops her cockpit, the images of the missile streaking off into the distance and detonating come flooding back to her. This prompts the young huntress to remove her helmet, throw open the canopy and shout "I can finally fight!"

A few minutes after, Ruby wanders into the mess hall and sees Weiss sitting down at a table behind a giant pile of paperwork. Ruby hears the light scratching of a pencil on paper and slides into the seat beside Weiss. The snow-haired huntress smiles weakly and says "Hey there, how was the flight with Blake?" Ruby giggles and says "Awesome! I can finally fight with you guys when we get deployed next!" Weiss smiles and says "Aw, that's great! Makes me feel a bit better knowing that my partner has my back up there".

Ruby hugs her friend and ask "Wanna eat something to get your mind off this work for a little bit?" Weiss tiredly responds "Ugh, I wish I could. I gotta have this paperwork done by 6am tomorrow. It's going to be an all-night project". Ruby nods and silently slips away for a minute, returning with a steaming coffee mug. Weiss quietly says "Thank you" then takes a sip of the drink before cringing and nearly spitting the coffee out.

Concerned, Ruby asks "Um, anything wrong Weiss?" The white-haired huntress swallows and says "Its so sweet! How many sugar packets are in this?!" Ruby shrugs and responds "I dunno, a fistful?" Weiss laughs to herself and says "You are going to get diabetes one day". Ruby rolls her eyes and says "You sound so much like my dad". Weiss resumes her work and says "Just looking out for you". Ruby gets up from her chair and says cutely "Well, Ice Queen. I'm going to head to sleep. Have a good night". Weiss smiles back at her partner as the red-haired huntress leaves the room.


	7. The Best-laid Plans

**Hello everyone, I just wanted to take this opportunity to apologize for the lack of updates. Recently I have been completely swamped with School, Work and other responsibilities. I promise that I will make an effort to push out more updates in the future. As usual, I absolutely thrive on your comments and ideas so please don't hesitate to let me know if there is something I can do to improve the story. Enjoy!**

Chapter seven: The Best-laid Plans

A week after her first training flight in the YF-12, Ruby is laying down on the couch in one of the smaller planning rooms early in the morning with sunlight streaming in through the small window. Yang, Weiss, Blake and Coco are standing around a large table covered in maps, diagrams and inventory lists. Twelve hours previous, the small group was tasked with determining a short-term plan of action as well as strike targets.

Weiss rubs her eyes and says to the group "Alright, we've been at this all night long, do we have anything resembling a conclusion?" An exhausted Yang replies "Yeah, we are spreading ourselves a bit too thin and we have to start hitting more ground targets." Coco nods and says "Exactly, I dunno what idiot thought it was a good idea to hold back on initial bombings. But anyway, we need to fill this gap."

Ruby scoffs and says from the couch "Easy, all we need is more planes to do strike missions." Blake chuckles and says "Ruby, do you know that it costs 20 million lien for a single F-16, right?" The young huntress groans and says "Whatever, we've got a solution for now. Let's just go to bed."

Ruby gets up off the couch and the group begins clearing the table of important documents. Just as the girls are ready to leave, Weiss' scroll begins blaring loudly. The heiress opens her phone and stops in her tracks. Reading the message over several times, Weiss says wide-eyed "Oh…This is bad." Cautiously, Coco asks "How bad?" Weiss turns the scroll toward the rest of the group, revealing the image of Salem's battered corpse amongst a large pile of explosive debris.

For several seconds, the girls are in complete shock before Yang says, on the verge of panic "Oh we are so fucked. Cinder is going to have our heads for this!" Blake says to Weiss in a shaking voice "H-how?" Weiss shuts the scroll and says in a somber voice "One of our cruise missiles hit a small building we thought was a warehouse. Guess it was actually where Salem was operating from."

Silence envelops the room a second time before Coco says "Guys, we have a very unique opportunity here. If we take out Cinder…somehow in the next day or so, the enemy leadership will have no way to recover and we can end the war almost instantly."

Weiss, being the highest-ranked officer in the room replies "Absolutely not. We can't risk aircraft and people with such little planning." Blake sighs and says "We have to re-think everything now. Cinder is going to retaliate in some horrendous way and we need to be prepared."

The girls immediately begin putting their documents and maps back where they were on the table, knowing that a complete re-work of their strategy is required. Just as work resumes, a Vacuo long-range ballistic missile crashes into one of the hangars and vaporizes three B-1 bombers, including team JNPR's. Luckily, the hangar is abandoned, hurting nobody.

A second missile strikes the base of the control tower, ripping out a large chunk of material and nearly causing the building to collapse completely. People continue running to their defensive positions in a mass panic. Suddenly, the sultry and seductive female voice of Cinder Fall comes over the base loudspeakers, stopping everyone in their tracks.

The voice announces "Hope you all enjoyed my little presents. There will be more where that came from if you pull a stunt like that again. I won't forget this."

An hour later, with the danger gone, the inhabitants of Vale AFB leave their defensive positions and resume their regular activities. Having put the time spent waiting in the bunker to good use, Weiss searches for Blake, holding a piece of paper detailing a strike mission Coco described previously. Upon arriving at Blake's room, Weiss knocks on the door and hears "Come in!"

Weiss opens the door and immediately shuts and locks it behind her, the heiress says in a hushed tone "Blake, I've thought about Coco's suggestion about hitting Cinder as soon as possible and I got a plan for how to do it."

Blake's ears perk up and she asks with a slight smile "How do we do it?" Weiss sighs and says "You are not going to like it, the plan involves sneaking into heavily defended enemy airspace with no recon assets or electronic warfare assistance, bombing the enemy positions as much as we can before sending in paratroopers to… take care of things."

Blake thinks for a minute and says "That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard." Weiss replies "Well, we have a few aces up our sleeves. First, we can use the B-2s as the bombers with either F-22s or F-35s as escorts. As for the paratroopers, a C-17 will have to do, sitting duck or not." Blake lets out a sigh and says "Okay, if command approves it then that should be that. Might even volunteer for the escort role if I get the chance."

Weiss smiles back at Blake and says "To be honest, I am eager to get back at those bastards, thinking they can just attack us like that." Blake quickly agrees and Weiss walks out the door.

Sixteen hours later, Blake is woken up by the printer on her computer desk springing to life. Blake rubs her eyes and walks over to the printer, seeing that a single page of plain text was printed. The cat Faunus grabs the paper and begins reading.

 _Major Blake Belladonna_

 _This is a TOP SECRET message from Atlas high command_

 _Report to your aircraft in one hour with full mission equipment_

 _Operation codename: STARLESS NIGHT_

 _The objective of this operation is to provide cover for a task force consisting of four B-2 Spirits and one C-17 Globemaster tasked with the assassination of Cinder Fall. Additional briefing information will be provided en route to objective. Your callsign for this operation is Bodyguard 01._

 _NOTE: Failure to maintain absolute secrecy for this operation will result in LIFE IMPROSONMENT_

 _DESTROY THIS PAPER_

Now fully awake, Blake says under her breath "Huh, I can't believe Weiss convinced Ironwood to go for this." The cat Faunus rubs her eyes and rips the paper into shreds before flushing the pieces down the toilet.

Blake quickly assembles her flight gear and heads out her door, toward the hangars. While walking, the cat Faunus takes occasional glances out the window and notices the lack of the shattered moon, the low amount of light allowing for nearly perfect stealth.

Upon arriving at her F-22, Blake finds the hangar completely empty, except for one figure dressed in black, with pure white hair and a black facemask. Blake snickers and approaches the figure, saying "You know, being inconspicuous isn't your specialty, Weiss."

Weiss pulls the mask off, saying with a shocked expression" Oh no. Ironwood picked you?" Blake simply nods in response. Weiss sighs and says "I didn't want to put you into this kind of danger, Ironwood said that he would make the right decision!" Blake rests a hand on Weiss' shoulder and says "Don't worry. This is where I want to be."

Weiss nods and says "Okay… Anyway, here are the basics. As mentioned in our little note, you are going to be flying escort for the bombers and troop transport. You are going to have another Raptor in the air with you, the designation is Bodyguard 02. Your plane has its standard air to air loadout. Don't do anything that even has a chance of ruining your stealth, the capital of Vacuo has more anti-air weapons than any place in the world."

Blake nods and exhales, saying "Do you have any ideas for what to do about the C-17? It is not stealthy at all and it has all of our troops on board." Weiss responds "Well, we got our hands on some fake I.D. tags for aircraft to make the C-17 look like a civilian airliner. It's not perfect but it'll do." Blake closes her eyes, silently contemplating the information before saying "Ok. Got it."

Weiss smiles slightly and says "I don't need to tell you how dangerous this is but… please be safe." Blake surprises Weiss by wrapping the white-haired girl into a tight hug. The two embrace before Blake says grinning "Anyway, I should go. Wars don't end themselves."

Fifteen minutes later, Blake is in the air, following a loose formation in her F-22. Blake uses her near-perfect night vision to survey the four stealth bombers, cargo plane, as well as the other escort fighter. The pilot of the lead B-2 announces "Okay everyone, the op is live. Stealth up and tighten the formation, I don't want anybody getting lost."

The other planes acknowledge the leader and close the formation, leaving little room to maneuver. Blake checks her instruments and disables her radar as well as most of her external communications, leaving almost nothing to be detected by enemy systems.

As the group advances on the target area, Blake hears her radio crackle with the voice of her wingman "Bodyguard 01, you there?" Annoyed, Blake responds "What's up 02? We're supposed to keep radio use down to a minimum." The wingman says "I know, but this mission feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the attack earlier today." Blake sighs and says "I'm aware. Let's just worry about getting the troops and bombs on the ground." Blake's wingman simply acknowledges the cat Faunus.

After another hour of flight, the group is only a few kilometers outside the Vacuo capital city. Blake takes a large breath and cautiously into her mic "Okay, this is it everybody. Ground leader, what's your status?" The commanding yet calm voice of Winter Shnee replies "All 102 paratroopers are set to go. I'll alert you upon reaching the drop zone. Then we'll… do our thing." Blake acknowledges Winter and thinks to herself "Weiss is going to lose her mind if she finds out Winter got picked to lead this."

The lead B-2 soon announces "Everybody, this is it! Releasing ordnance in five!" Blake instinctively checks her instruments should the need to either fight or run arrive. "Four!" Blake tightens the grip on her controls as the bay doors of the stealth bombers open. "Three!" Blake glances backward at the last B-2 in the formation, just in time to see the bomber aircraft get struck by an air to air missile.

Blake screams "CONTACT CONTACT CONTACT!" into the radio as the already crippled bomber gets hit twice more. In one swift motion, Blake activates her radar as well as her weapon systems. She sees two unidentified aircraft on her radar, instantly recognizing them as a pair of SU-35s.

The lead B-2 pilot shouts "Everyone release their ordnance now! Paratroopers! You're going to have to jump now and improvise your way to the objective!" Blake immediately says "02, help me fry those SU-35s! We gotta take them from afar, stay on my tail!"

The pair of F-22s lose some altitude and increase their speed greatly, hoping to add momentum to their missiles upon releasing them. Hardly containing her fury, Blake shouts "On my mark, we'll fire off six AMRAAMs, splitting them between the two…Mark!" Both planes release six missiles each, immediately honing in on their respective targets. One of the SU-35s is hit multiple times and vaporized while the second fighter manages to escape unscathed.

Blake hears over the radio "01 we need to fry the second SU-35 before he comes around for another attack run!" Blake calmly says "Negative, we need to save missiles if more fighters arrive. Either way, he's on afterburners in the opposite direction he came from, he won't be bothering us again." A moment of silence follows before the cat Faunus quietly says to the enemy dot on her radar "I won't shoot you in your retreating back."

The pilot of the SU-35 wipes sweat off his brow with a shaking hand as he carefully watches the near-invisible specks of light on his radar. He takes a deep breath and says to himself, attempting to contain his emotions "Why'd it have to be us sent up tonight." After sufficiently calming himself, he says into his radio "Command! We have allied fighters and bomber aircraft headed toward the capitol building in the center of the city! Send whoever's available and alert city defense!"

With tired eyes, Blake carefully surveys the three remaining B-2s as they release their large inventories of air to surface missiles. 30 seconds after releasing, Blake looks to the ground and sees numerous bright flashes across the city as the missiles find their mark, destroying anti-air weapons, troop encampments and everything in between.

The lead B-2 pilot says angrily "Ground leader! What's the holdup?! You need to jump now otherwise all this will be for nothing!" Winter responds "We're opening the cargo doors now! We'll be on our way in fifteen-OH SHIT!" Blake snaps her attention to the C-17 as an R-77 air to air missile impacts the cockpit and detonates, effectively decapitating the troop transport.

As the C-17 begins to fall from the sky, all 102 paratroopers flood out of the plane in a large group. Now sufficiently scared, Blake directs her attention back to her radar screen and sees four very small dots, T-50 PAK-FAs. The cat Faunus keeps her cool and says "02… We've got four T-50s on an intercept course. We're breaking off immediately!" The second F-22 pilot replies "No way! We need to keep the bombers safe!"

Now ticked off, Blake says "I'm not losing another aircraft! Get your ass into formation and stealth up!" Blake's wingman yells back "We'll be sitting ducks! We need to fight back!" An infuriated Blake shouts "We are leaving with or without you 02!" to which she gets the response "Fine." Before the cat Faunus can respond, the second F-22 peels away from the group and the pilot briefly says "Just go… I'll buy you some time." before shutting off the radio.

Tears form in Blake's eyes as her F-22 and the three remaining B-2s turn and peel off toward home. Blake looks at her radar screen a final time and sees five incredibly small dots swarming around each other like a group of fireflies before seeing one of the dots vanish, then two, then a third disappears, prompting the two remaining PAK-FAs smooth out their flight and one of them to begin heading toward the bomber group.

With an incredibly choked up voice, Blake says "Everyone had better be stealthed up, one of them is heading back towards us." The bombers acknowledge Blake as the Saunus fighter begins trailing Blake's F-22. The cat Faunus thinks "How is it following me?! All my stealth systems are up…engine heat, that's gotta be it!"

Blake grabs her throttles and yanks them all the way back to their base positions, shutting down both of the F-22's engines. Blake keeps her aircraft in a controlled glide as the now-confused enemy pilot begins surveying the area, getting close enough that Blake can see the enemy plane. The Faunus pilot takes a good look at the PAK-FA and sees that the plane is coated in a red and black digital camouflage with a pair of oddly painted spikes on either side of the cockpit that almost look like… Bull horns.

Blake's eyes go wide and the Faunus pilot lets out a short scream before covering her mouth and letting tears fall freely from her eyes. As the hostile plane begins giving up on its search for the F-22, Blake says almost silently "Why did it have to be Adam?" With all options for tracking the F-22 exhausted, Adam peels off and disappears into the night.

After several hours of flying, the end of the disastrous mission is almost within reach. Blake's radio comes to life with Winter's hushed voice saying "All allied forces in the area, this is Winter Shnee, please respond." Blake un-mutes her mic and says "This is Major Blake Belladonna, go, Winter."

Winter replies "We're going to have to bug out for this mission, the entire capitol city is under complete lockdown and I don't think we can make it to the target. They've got tanks, artillery, air support and several companies worth of ground troops. We need a full evac as fast as possible, please relay to Allied central command, Major." Blake acknowledges Winter and relays her message as instructed.

Upon landing, just after sunrise, Blake nervously clambers down the ladder adjacent to her F-22 and removes her helmet. Blake gazes across the airfield and notices five A-10 Warthogs fully loaded for air to surface combat queuing for takeoff. Amongst the group is Coco in the lead with Yang bringing up the rear. Blake lets out an exhale and says to herself as the planes take off "Please be safe."


	8. The Hornet's nest

Chapter eight: The Hornet's nest

With a satisfying 'THUD' Yang disconnects her A-10 from the refueling arm of the huge KC-135 tanker aircraft in front of her. The blonde aviator falls into formation with her squad consisting of five heavily-modified A-10C Warthogs. Yang says into her mic "Vulcan 05 is all fueled up and ready to go." Coco responds "Excellent, we're two minutes from the objective. Keep it tight people!"

As Vacuo's capital is a coastal city, the group of A-10s have a few dozen more miles of ocean to cross before arriving at the huge urban sprawl. Once there, the attack jets are to cause as much damage to enemy forces as possible, allowing for the stranded ground forces to escape the city for pickup.

Coco says to her squad "Reduce altitude to 400 feet and throttle up. I don't want any missiles getting any of you guys." The four other A-10 s acknowledge Coco and reduce their altitude as instructed. Yang checks her instrument panel and sees that her six AGM-65 Maverick anti-surface missiles are fully operational. With a 136 kilogram explosive warhead in each missile, Yang can convert almost any armored vehicle into scrap metal.

With only a few miles to the city, Coco says "05, you're with me. Everybody else spread yourselves out." Yang sees the other three A-10s peel off as the entire sky is filled with anti-air tracer rounds. Coco merely scoffs as the rounds aren't nearly large enough to penetrate the A-10's titanium armor.

Coco changes her radio to an open channel and says "Ground forces. Five Warthogs on station and ready to assist, give us some targets." Winter responds "Warthogs! We've got a tank group blocking our way out of the city! Sending coordinates… now!"

The attack jet pilots have a set of coordinates appear on their HUDs, Coco says "Yang, do your thing." A wicked smile spreads across Yang's face as she turns her A-10 to point at the tank group. The golden-haired aviator flicks an arming switch, readying her supply of Maverick missiles. Yang spots the group of five tanks exchanging fire with the friendly group of soldiers.

Yang calmly angles the nose of her plane down and obtains a ground-lock on the tank group and fires off two of her six missiles. The two heavy missiles accelerate quickly and impact the ground, ripping one of the tanks apart and spraying shrapnel in all directions. Yang pulls the nose of her plane up and shouts "One tank down! 01, give me a hand here!"

Coco acknowledges Yang and orients her A-10 to face the tanks and angles her plane down. A smile spreads on her face as the massive GAU-8-Avenger 30mm rotary cannon spins up to firing speed. Coco properly sights the weapon and squeezes the trigger, unleashing a torrent of 65 fist-sized armor-piercing bullets per second. The fashion-conscious pilot keeps the trigger held down until three of the remaining four tanks are riddled with holes and immobilized.

Coco pulls up and asks "Hey 05, wanna take out that last bit of armor?" Yang responds, as enthusiastic as ever, "Already on it commander!" The golden-haired pilot turns her A-10 to point at the remaining tank and reduces her speed. Yang preps a new Maverick missile and takes her time obtaining a lock. Before Yang can pull the trigger, a flash of white erupts from the tank. Yang's lilac eyes go wide and she jams the stick to one side in an attempt to dodge the tank shell.

The high-explosive tank projectile barely clips Yang's left wingtip and explodes several hundred meters behind the attack jet. The aviator's lilac eyes suddenly shift to red and Yang squeezes her trigger several times while letting out a sustained scream, releasing her remaining four Maverick missiles. The four missiles impact the tank and tear it apart, leaving only a crater with tank parts scattered about.

Seeing that her wingman has completely lost control, Coco shouts "Xiao Long! Calm yourself the hell down before you get yourself or one of us killed!" Hearing this, Yang takes several deep breaths as the fire in her eyes gets extinguished. Coco breathes a sigh of relief and says "02, 3 and 4, how are you doing?" Vulcan 02 responds "Keeping the chaos coming, we just hit every ammunition depot we could and took out two of the three bridges leading out of the city.

Pleased, Coco responds "Excellent job everyone. Ground troops! You are cleared to advance out of the city!" Yang glances down and sees the group of soldiers quickly moving through the city, only encountering minor resistance. Happy that the soldiers are advancing without much difficulty, Yang checks her radar screen and sees an unknown, small, fuzzy dot. Confused, Yang checks her surroundings and sees nothing. Yang says "Vulcan 01, I have an unidentified contact on radar, please confirm."

Coco checks her own radar screen and sees the same fuzzy image, after a minute of contemplation, she says "Unless that thing has both stealth and electronic warfare capabilities, it's probably just an equipment issue." Yang thinks nothing of it until the rough voice of Adam Taurus utters "I assure you I'm real, and I intend to make an example out of you, Xiao long."

Yang doesn't even comprehend the words she is hearing; the mere sound of Adam's voice instantly triggers a horrible series of flashbacks of that one night. The sight of Blake laying wounded on the ground, the pain, the blood, all come rushing back in one instant. In the moment of clarity and pure terror, Yang spots the PAK-FA slowly circling around the group of attack jets from above.

With her assailant clearly identified, Yang's eyes flare red and her hair ignites hotter than ever, singing her fireproof flight suit. The now enraged blonde pushes her throttles forward to maximum and pulls up, despite knowing full well that she only has her gun and two Sidewinder missiles to defend herself. Seeing this, Coco screams "DON'T ATTACK HIM, XIAO LONG! THAT'S AN ORDER!" This order, as well as similar commands from various squad mates fall on deaf ears.

Gaining altitude as fast as possible, Yang remembers a phrase her therapist told her a long time ago, "I know that fighting back blindly is your go-to response when confronted with a threatening situation. At least try to focus your rage and properly assess the situation, then use your anger to your advantage."

It now dawns on Yang that attacking a PAK-FA with a slow, not very maneuverable, ground-attack aircraft is completely suicidal. Just before she can adjust her heading and reach safety, Adam sights in Yang's A-10 and opens fire. The 30mm rounds from the PAK-FA impact the A-10 and blow off 1/3 of the attack jet's right wing.

After realizing the irony and extreme danger of the situation, Yang re-gains control of her aircraft and sends the A-10 hurtling toward the ground with Adam choosing not to pursue. The White Fang pilot says, almost disappointed "I expected more of a fight out of you, Yang. Do you think I'll get more resistance out of your sister or that Shnee bitch? How about that traitorous whore, Blake?"

Adam only hears laughter in response and Coco says "Oh boy, you're going to be sorry. The guy she replaced you with and his best friend just heard all of that." Before Adam can even respond, Coco shouts "Vulcan squad! The troops on the ground just escaped the city! Let's get out of here!" Immediately, all the A-10s accelerate and escape the city over the ocean.

50 kilometers away, Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias lie in wait on the flight deck of the Atlas military's brand new Maiden-class carrier airship. Being the only flying aircraft carrier in the allies' inventory, it is easily the most useful asset the entire fighting force has to offer.

Sun slowly steadies his breathing as he maneuvers his F/A-18F Super Hornet onto one of the carrier's two catapults. After properly connecting the plane with the launch system, Sun says to Neptune in the rear seat of the F-18 "You ready for this Hydrophobe?" Neptune responds, "All set, let's take this douche out!"

After a quick conversation with the 'island' control tower on the carrier, Sun receives launch clearance. The monkey Faunus sees the yellow-clad launch systems officer on the deck snap a sharp salute to which Sun replies with a similar salute. The deck engineers raise a large section of the deck behind the F-18 at an 80-degree angle to deflect any jet blast from the fighter's engines.

Sun then pushes the F-18 to full afterburner but the jet remains motionless due to being firmly attached to the catapult system. With a final confirmation signal from the island, the catapult fires and sends the jet hurtling down the length of the carrier and off the edge. Sun pulls up slightly and begins rapidly gaining speed, heading directly toward the center of the city.

Upon reaching Mach 1.5, Sun mutters under his breath "Nobody talks about Blake that way." Neptune replies "C'mon man, get your head in the game. I wanna fry this prick just as badly as you do."

Being a practitioner of Zen for many years, Sun slows down his breathing and enters a calm, hyperaware state where his focus is only on the task at hand. In this case, his objective is killing Adam quickly and cleanly.

With Sun properly in his 'zone' Neptune hears his commander say "We're sending a trio of F-35Cs to back you guys up. I don't want you taking on that psychopath alone." Neptune acknowledges his commander and re-focuses on the task of aiding Sun. After another two minutes of supersonic travel, the PAK-FA comes into view.

Often described as a 'Crazed dogfighting machine' Sun and Neptune have come out on top during every single test the Navy could hope to throw at them to measure their skill in air combat. Confident that a single opponent, albeit in a superior aircraft would be no trouble, Sun decelerates and falls behind the enemy fighter.

Seeing the F-18, Adam inverts his plane and pulls back on the control stick, sending the PAK-FA toward the surface. Expertly keeping pace, Sun fires three short bursts from the F-18's 20mm cannon, with the last burst connecting and blowing off a small chunk of Adam's right tailfin. In response, Adam levels out and performs a half-loop followed by a half-roll, sending him in the opposite direction of the pursuing F-18.

Sun watches the plane blow by the F-18's canopy and asks Neptune "Where's he at?! I need a target!" Neptune checks his radar screen and says "He's three kilometers out and arcing around, definitely trying for a missile lock!" Sun immediately performs a series of rapid turns and rolls to avoid a missile lock while saying into his radio "Command! When is my backup arriving?!" Almost instantly, the commander responds "We're getting two of the F-35s ready to launch with a third bringing up the rear. Just hold out for a few more minutes."

Back on the flight deck of the carrier, the crews continue putting the finishing touches on the trio of F-35Cs. Behind a stack of crates, a certain ice cream lady sits waiting for the perfect opportunity to do some damage. Neo casually scans the flight deck and spots one of the two F-35s being prepared for the catapult launch and immediately makes her way over, taking particular care to avoid blowing her cover.

Upon reaching the fighter plane, Neo sneaks behind one of the landing gear at the rear of the plane and takes a look inside, seeing a large bundle of heavily-insulated wires. With a smile on her face, Neo grabs a fistful of the wires and yanks them out, sending sparks flying everywhere. Neo then sneaks off toward one of the stairwells that leads to the catapult control area just as the pilot enters the cockpit.

Neo quickly reaches the control room and sees that the area is temporarily empty, much to the girl's enjoyment. Neo nonchalantly tosses a remote-detonated explosive on a panel near some important-looking computer equipment. After exiting the room and returning to the flight deck, Neo hides once more as the pair of F-35s are launched with the third on its way to the pair of catapults.

The instant the third F-35 reaches the takeoff area, Neo bolts straight toward the fighter jet, ignoring stealth entirely. Neo reaches the plane and every crewmember on the deck spots the intruder. A smile spreads on Neo's face as she pulls out a radio transmitter and detonates the explosive, putting the pair of catapults completely out of commission.

Neo leaps on top of the plane's canopy and takes the pilot completely by surprise. Before the pilot can either draw his pistol to defend himself or attempt to take off, Neo grabs the manual release and opens the canopy. Neo then grabs the pilot's helmet and pulls it off his head before bringing it down hard, seriously injuring the pilot and cracking the visor of the helmet.

The ice cream lady then grabs the now-crippled pilot by his flight suit and throws him out of the plane, albeit with extreme effort. With the pilot taken care of, Neo casually puts the helmet on and shuts the canopy. Immediately, Neo hears the pilot of one of the two F-35s over the radio say "Command! I'm having a huge amount of unknown errors! I'm losing engine thrust and my controls aren't responding!"

Upon hearing the pilot in distress, Neo spots the sabotaged aircraft only a few kilometers off the front of the carrier. Neo quickly activates the weapon systems of the plane and obtains a lock on the F-35 just as a squad of heavily armed marines arrive on the flight deck. Before she can pull the trigger, a smattering of small-arms fire impacts the plane with one of the bullets nearly piercing the cockpit. Realizing the threat, Neo pulls the trigger and fires off a Sidewinder missile.

The missile flies over the lip of the carrier and immediately homes in on the damaged F-35. The pilot quickly ejects upon seeing the missile which promptly blows the plane in half. Pleased with her work, Neo re-checks her surroundings as the marines open fire once more, before taking cover, she sees that one of the marines is armed with a rocket launcher. Neo takes cover underneath the canopy as more bullets damage her F-35 and jams her throttle forward.

With no catapult system to speak of, The F-35 gains speed slowly, knocking over both people and equipment due to the uncontained jet wash. Neo grips the controls until her knuckles are white as the fighter jet falls over the lip of the carrier. The plane gains speed rapidly in a near-vertical drop and Neo pulls up, nearly crushing the girl as she lacks a flight suit.

Now that the plane is flying somewhat steadily, Neo checks the diagnostic screen and sees that the aircraft has taken far too much damage to fight effectively. With an audible 'pop' of her lips, Neo activates the F-35's stealth systems and flies off, choosing to fight another day.

Back in the heat of the dogfight, Sun makes a hard-right turn to avoid a pair of R-77 missiles fired by the PAK-FA. Despite possessing an inferior aircraft, Sun has easily held his ground against Adam in the close-range fight. The blonde says under his breath "He's too far away, gotta close the gap."

Sun cuts his throttles and lets Adam overshoot his F-18, putting him in prime position for a quick end to the fight. Being the weapon systems officer, Neptune arms the aircraft's supply of four Sidewinder missiles. Before he can obtain a lock, Adam begins a series of wide S-turns hoping to avoid the F-18's missiles.

Expertly keeping pace, Sun says "Backup squad! Try to cut him off so I can get a clean shot!" The lone F-35 immediately accelerates and turns hard, cutting Adam off and forcing him to dodge, missing the plane by the slimmest of margins. With Adam distracted, The F-35 fires off two AMRAAM missiles as a further harassment measure. Sure enough, the pair of missiles distract Adam long enough for sun to obtain a proper attack angle.

With the F-18 and PAK-FA 10 kilometers away, the two pilots orient themselves so that the planes are on a collision course directly toward each other. Sun says "Huh, I just realized we're fighting against my own country." Neptune shrugs and replies "Well, he isn't from Vacuo. He's just some jackass that joined the White Fang?" Instantly brightening up, Sun replies "Ooh! good point!" and squeezes the trigger.

The single Sidewinder missile ignites its engine and streaks toward Adam's plane, who responds with a missile of his own. Sun pulls hard to the left and dodges the missile but Adam is not as lucky. The proximity warhead of the Sidewinder missile detonates under the PAK-FA's mid-section and turns one of the engines into scrap metal.

Sun observes his crippled opponent spiraling toward the ground and says to Neptune "Hey, let me put the final nail in this jackasses' coffin." Neptune chuckles and replies "Go ahead." Smiling, Sun says into his radio "Hey Adam, how happy do you think Blake will be when I tell her I kicked your ass and destroyed that fancy plane of yours. Silence follows, prompting Sun to lean back and hi-five his co-pilot.

With his plane crippled, Adam struggles greatly to re-gain control before he crashes into the ground. With one final pull, the PAK-FA pulls out of its dive and is somewhat stable. Adam says under his breath "I'm getting him back for this." and returns to base.


	9. Prey

Chapter nine: Prey

With a smile on her face, Ruby shuts and locks the door to her room and starts walking down the hall, excited for her day off. The young pilot turns a corner and throws open a set of double-doors, leading to the pilot common room. Ruby glances around and takes in all the usual sights, Yang playing a motion-controlled dancing videogame with a group of slack-jawed onlookers behind her, Blake and Sun making out on one of the couches, and Weiss watching it all disapprovingly.

Ruby slides up next to Weiss with a look of pure excitement on her face

"Hey there, Weiss! Ready to go?"

"Yup. Let's go."

Weiss takes a last look at the immaturity that surrounds her and the two make their way outside to the parking area. Ruby produces a set of keys from her pocket.

"I'll drive."

Weiss scoffs.

"Uh. You don't have a car."

Ruby makes eye contact with Weiss and her lips curl into a devilish grin.

"I sure don't. Now hop on"

Ruby gestures to Yang's motorcycle, Bumblebee and continues walking towards it. Weiss shakes her head rapidly and takes a step backwards.

"Nonono! I'm not getting on that deathtrap!"

"Weisssss, c'mon! Stop being a baby! You've flown an F-15 at Mach 2.7 like… 20 kilometers in the air! Why are you afraid of a 200-kilogram motorbike?!"

Weiss starts straightening her hair nervously seemingly without realizing.

"Well… it's just…You can't expect me to believe that you actually have a license to use that thing."

A very smug smile works its way onto Ruby's face as she unfurls her wallet, revealing a Vale motorcycle license. Weiss closes her eyes and lets out a sigh of defeat.

"Just gimmie the helmet."

Two minutes later, Ruby and Weiss are blasting down the long access road that leads from Vale AFB to the center of town. Ruby keeps the throttle steady, maintaining a speed of 130 kph while Weiss clutches onto her red-clad driver for dear life. Not wanting to give her passenger a heart attack, Ruby reduces her speed and turns off the access road, bringing her onto Vale's main street.

Ruby further reduces her speed and takes in the sight of Vale's many small shops and restaurants basking in the intense summer heat. Spotting their destination, Ruby makes a left turn and pulls into the parking lot of a restaurant called _Cibo per la mente._

After finding a parking spot, Ruby dismounts the bike and casually removes her helmet, tossing it on the motorcycle's seat. A visibly shaking Weiss removes her helmet and takes a deep breath to calm herself before getting off the bike and catching up with Ruby. The two aviators throw open the doors and are greeted with the cool interior of the restaurant. Weiss glances around and takes note of the aged wood paneling, well-worn carpets and antique lighting fixtures synonymous with a mom and pop restaurant.

Ruby exchanges pleasantries with the hostess who then guides the pair to a table outside on the brick sidewalk, right near the street. Ruby and Weiss take their seats and place their orders, Penne alla vodka for Weiss and a 'Special Order' pizza for Ruby.

With their orders placed, Ruby leans her chair back and props her feet up on the metal barricade that separates the restaurant area from the rest of the sidewalk, much to Weiss' displeasure. Ruby relaxes and leans further back, enjoying the intense sunlight. After a minute of quiet, Ruby breaks the silence.

"Weiss… what do you think Cinder's play is? I can't seem to, well, get inside her headspace."

Surprised, Weiss thinks over the question carefully before responding.

"Looks like the classic greedy power grab to me. Usurp control quickly and cleanly then start taking out the competition systematically. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it with my father. Of course in our case we can effectively fight back, unlike all those poor companies now under the Shnee name."

With that last sentence, Weiss' face contorts slightly as she works her jaw from side to side, mentally berating herself for bringing up her family. Ruby nods and her voice suddenly quiets down.

"I just want to get a few punches in before the dust settles." Just then, a waitress walks by with a pair of large trays. Weiss smiles and turns to Ruby with a smile on her face.

"Well you can't fight on an empty stomach, eat up."

Ruby turns and sees her pizza, a huge mess of buffalo chicken, ranch dressing, multiple types of cheese, and bacon. The two girls look at the pizza and Ruby's face has a look of pure pleasure.

"Ohhhhhh baby, come to mama."

"Rubes, my arteries are getting clogged just looking at that thing."

Ruby grabs a slice without hesitation and takes a massive bite, savoring every bit of the highly caloric pizza. Weiss looks on both intrigued and appalled at the sight of Ruby enjoying one of her favorite foods. Ruby continues eating as if her life depended on it while Weiss delicately picks at her pasta, both disturbed and intrigued by watching Ruby eat.

After wolfing down two pizza slices in the span of five minutes, Ruby takes a big breath and relaxes slightly, leaning her chair back with a look of bliss on her face.

"Well, it looks like you're happy."

"I am in food-based heaven."

The two girls continue eating and talking about various topics for another 30 minutes, enjoying each other's company as well as the lovely weather. Just as Ruby finishes her fourth slice of pizza, her scrolls begin to buzz aggressively. Ruby pulls out her phone first and begins reading the message sent to her by Vale AFB's commander.

Suddenly, Ruby's expression hardens into a dead-serious glare as she looks up from her phone and makes eye contact with Weiss. The white-haired aviator pinches the bridge of her nose.

"Alright, lay it on me."

Ruby rises from her seat, and motions for Weiss to follow her. Weiss follows her friend through the restaurant and out the back door to where Bumblebee is parked. Ruby wastes no time in throwing on her helmet and tossing the spare helmet to Weiss. Before either of them mount the bike, Weiss grabs onto Ruby's arm and turns her around so that the two are making eye contact.

"Ruby! For god's sake explain what's going on!"

"There's a Tupolev Tu-160 bomber is on its way to Vale's coast. The bomber's two escorts just shot down a pair of F-16s and are heading straight for the mainland! I'm the fastest interceptor plane so I have to shoot it down! Now get on the bike!"

Both girls immediately hop on Bumblebee and Ruby starts the motorbike, engulfing the parking area in a high-pitched whine as the 998cc engine churns to life. Ruby pushes against the ground with her feet, moving the bike out of its parking space and into the center of the lot. Ruby then closes the throttle, pulls in the clutch, pushes downward on the shifter with her foot and guns the throttle.

Thanks to Bumblebee's incredible power to weight ratio and excellent tire grip, Ruby and Weiss are thrown forward at incredible speed. The pair feel a slight bump as the motorcycle drops from the sidewalk down to street level and starts accelerating again.

With whole-hearted determination burning at her very soul, Ruby squeezes the clutch and gives the shifter a small kick, shifting into second gear and accelerating to 100kph on the cramped public road. Weiss observes her friend masterfully weave in and out through the dense late-morning traffic, then shift to third gear and feel another surge of acceleration.

After only a few minutes of travel, Ruby spots the access road that leads to Vale AFB and turns hard, not bothering to let up on the throttle at all. Bumblebee is thrown into an aggressive skid to which Ruby steers into and counters beautifully. Now on the access road and only four kilometers from the base, Ruby forces Bumblebee through her gears until she reaches her final drive in sixth gear.

At 270 kilometers per hour, Weiss is both fascinated and terrified by the situation presented in front of her. Ruby's focus in controlling the bike is absolute, as if Bumblebee were an extension of her very body. Weiss watches the few trees that line the road blow by at lightning speed as she listens to the high-pitched whine of the bike's supercharger gulping down liter after liter of air to feed the combustion cycle in its engine.

Ruby starts decelerating the bike as the base approaches in an effort to make it to her unit's locker room as fast as possible. Upon seeing the proper building, Ruby lets up on the throttle and fully squeezes the brake handle, heating the disc brakes in both wheels to a dull orange glow. The instant the bike grinds to a halt, Ruby leaps off her driver's position and runs into her unit's locker room, leaving Weiss in a state of shock at the young pilot's huge amount of professionalism and dedication when confronted with such a desperate situation.

A minute later, Ruby bursts through the door, clad in her red and black space suit and starts running towards her YF-12. The young pilot's legs become a blur as she reaches her running speed of 33 kilometers per hour. With her plane coming into view, Ruby's ears pick up the massive roar of the YF-12's pair of J58 engines.

Ruby dons her helmet and seemingly flies up the stairs leading to the cockpit, landing perfectly in her seat. With Penny already onboard, the group of engineers on the ground remove the stairs, cables and fuel hoses from the YF-12. Ruby checks the pressure seals on her suit and keys her mic.

"Comm check, you there Penny?"

"I'm here Ruby, all pre-flight checks are already completed. Let's take her out."

With a small nudge of the throttles, the YF-12 lumbers forward toward the designated runway. Now that most of the adrenaline rush has subsided, Ruby calms down slightly and allows herself to think.

"Do we know anything about the escort planes?"

"Negative. None of the pilots were able to get a look at them and report in before they were shot down. We just need to avoid them."

Ruby soon reaches her designated runway and throws the throttles forward, producing a pair of 15-meter-long afterburner flames from the engines as the plane surges forward. Upon hitting proper takeoff speed, Ruby gently pulls back on the control stick, easing the huge plane into the air.

After a regular mid-air refueling and acceleration phase, Ruby and Penny are 24 kilometers in the air and moving at 3 times the speed of sound. Penny checks her radar screen and analyzes the data in an instant.

"Ruby, the enemy formation is 400 kilometers out and directly approaching us, we should be within firing range in two minutes."

"Got it. Get me a firing solution on all three of them."

"Hm, that's odd. It seems that one of the planes won't show up on our displays properly. Looks like a combination of stealth properties and electronic warfare equipment. Advanced stuff, too."

"Can you get radar lock-on?"

"I can but the chances of scoring a hit are fewer than one in 50."

"I like those odds!"

Several hundred kilometers away, Emerald Sustrai in her MiG-29K and Neo in her stolen F-35C continue escorting the Tu-160 bomber. Emerald glances at the F-35 and lets out a short, frustrated breath. It had been Neo's idea to peel off from the group and attack the pair of F-16s, whether it was to prevent it from revealing their location or for fun, she has no idea. Emerald takes a look at her radar screen and sees an incredibly fuzzy contact causing a huge amount of interference with her instruments.

Emerald reaches to the side of her helmet and keys her mic.

"Neo, can you see that contact causing all of that interference?"

Neo responds by using their computers data links to send a text message to Emerald's display.

 _Yes, its approaching fast, too._

"If it's a plane and not just some malfunction, it's probably an SR-71… Why the hell would they send a spy plane after us? If they had even half a brain in their skulls they would send more fighter planes."

Before either of the two can fully ignore the unknown radar contact, Neo's HUD starts alerting her to an incoming missile. In response, Neo rapid-fire types a message alerting her wingman to the danger. Emerald informs the crew of the bomber and checks her surroundings, seeing nothing at first before a missile nearly four meters long blows past Neo's F-35 at Mach 3 and continues downward at a 45-degree angle.

None of the three planes have time to react before a second missile impacts the Tu-160 and blows it cleanly in half with a third missile barely misses Emerald's MiG. Both Emerald and Neo are blinded by the massive explosion, their planes thrown sideways from the shockwave. Neo recovers from the blast very quickly and starts searching for her attacker while Emerald is thrown into nearly every aviator's worst nightmare, a flat spin.

Emerald's eyes feel as though they are in the back of her head as the MiG-29 spins violently out of control and begins plummeting toward the ground. The green-haired pilot's mind quickly becomes a jumbled mess of terrified thoughts and attempts at finding a solution for her current situation. Remembering a trick she once heard, Emerald lowers her landing gear and flaps, then pushes both engines to full throttle. The increased air resistance soon slows down the spin and allows Emerald to recover, albeit 5000 meters lower than when she started.

Back in the cockpit of the YF-12, a small grin has found its way onto Ruby's face. Her first ever air to air victory had gone off without a hitch thanks to her fantastic piloting skill as well as Penny's excellent judgment and intelligence.

"Nice work Penny! Let's head home, looks like the other two aren't too much of a problem."

"Erm, Don't be so sure. One of them is on an intercept course, altitude increasing at 150 meters per second."

Out of habit, Ruby grabs her throttles and pushes them forward almost all the way, accelerating the plane to 3.35 times the speed of sound. Penny does a series of quick calculations and keys her mic.

"It won't be enough to accelerate! No matter what we do the intercepting plane will end up in front of us in 30 seconds."

"Fine. Got any idea what type of plane it is?"

Penny goes silent for three seconds as she analyzes every scrap of data the YF-12's sensors have gathered on the enemy combatant.

"Definitely an F-35C. It was reported stolen off the Atlesian navy's Maiden class carrier."

"Okay, give me some more info on that plane! I need some way to beat it!"

"Well it was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics one and a half years ago, it cost the Vale Navy 110.8 million lien for procurement, It was flight tested and delivered on…"

For one of the few times in her life, Ruby almost completely loses her temper.

"GET TO THE POINT!"

"F-35s were never meant to fly this high, even as a desperation measure. Any higher and the engine and control surfaces could crap out, so to speak."

Ruby instantly pulls up in an effort to out-climb the F-35. The young pilot watches her altitude increase to 25 kilometers, then 26 and 27. Penny re-checks her radar and is incredibly pleased with the readouts.

"Good news! The F-35 just lost all its momentum and stalled. Oh, wait… It just fired off four AMRAAM missiles."

Ruby's HUD goes alive with missile warnings, prompting her to push her throttles to maximum and start losing altitude.

Penny keys her mic and her voice adopts an uncharacteristically nervous tone.

"Rubes, adjust your course. The atmosphere gets thicker the closer we get to the ground. At these speeds, we'll be vaporized."

"We just need to keep ahead of the missiles for a little while longer! The longer their engines burn, the more speed they lose, then we can just outrun them."

As the YF-12's altitude decreases even more, dozens of warning lights flash on Ruby's HUD and control board, warning her of excessive heat and pressure in the plane's most vital components. When the plane dips below 20 kilometers in altitude, the missiles lose their lock and fly off in random directions. Ruby barely has time to acknowledge her luck before Penny keys her mic in a hurry.

"Ruby! Altitude!"

Ruby immediately pulls back on her control stick, sending the YF-12 hurtling back toward the sky at Mach speed to safety.

15 kilometers below the YF-12, Neo re-gains control over her plane and links up with Emerald.

"No luck, right?"

Neo doesn't bother responding, choosing instead to look over at Emerald through her fighter's canopy. Even through the flight suit and helmet, Emerald can tell that Neo has an expression on her face that says 'No shit'.

"Fine then, follow me back to base. We'll deal with the consequences as they come."

Several hours later, Neo and Emerald find themselves in a darkly lit office in a Vacuo air force base in southern Saunus. Still clad in their flight suits, the two shift uncomfortably while waiting for the figure, clad in a red evening dress and heels, to start talking.

"Look, words won't accurately describe how mad I am. I want to hear your side of the story."

Emerald wipes a thin line of sweat off of her forehead and clears her throat.

"We took off, we escorted the bomber, I spotted two Vale F-16s Neo here moved to engage and shot them down."

Cinder turns to Neo and her eyes narrow, leaving her pale orange irises barely visible.

"Why did you feel the need to attack the two fighters? Was there any sort of reason to engage them and draw attention to yourself like that?"

Neo responds with a cutesy smile and her trademark silence.

Cinder sighs and stands up from her chair. She stands directly in front of Emerald and jabs her index finger directly above the green-haired pilot's breastbone.

"If you fuck up like that again, I… I don't know what I'm gonna do. I though this little team I put together was worth something! All it's gotten me is Mercury killed and billions of lien worth of aircraft destroyed. Not to mention what happened to Salem!"

"Uhm, weren't you going to have Salem killed anyway. Isn't that your plan to get absolute control?"

Cinder's expression hardens and she stands up from her desk, then walks past Emerald and Neo and out the door.

"Just make sure this doesn't happen again."


	10. We All Have Bad Days

Yang barely has time to spot the anti-air emplacement on the desert floor before it opens fire, ripping into of her A-10C with a smattering of 23mm armor-piercing rounds.

"Oh c'mon, you assholes! Cheap shot!"

Now properly mad, Yang depresses the _Bomb Release_ button on her control stick.

All eight of the A-10's 227 kilogram bombs break loose from their mounts and fall 400 meters before finding their mark. The weapons rip the anti-air gun apart and gouge a noticeable crater in the surface of the desert. Yang looks behind her, over her seat and sees that her bombs have found their mark and that her right engine had taken quite a beating, seeing that it is pouring out black smoke.

The blonde aviator shakes her head to re-focus but is interrupted by Coco's panicked voice over the radio.

"YANG! SUKHOI ON YOUR TAIL!"

Yang doesn't bother trying to get a look at her attacker, instead choosing to release a large burst of chaff and infrared flares and attempt to dodge, only for her plane to barely respond due to her heavily damaged control surfaces.

Seeing that the A-10 is almost completely crippled, the pilot of the attacking Su-27 takes position behind the painfully slow attack jet and obtains a missile lock. Yang has _Missile Alert_ flash on her HUD before her plane is hit by an R-77 missile. The missile blows the right wing off and severs the body of the plane in half, leaving less than half of the plane remaining.

With her plane reduced to scrap metal, Yang grips the ejection seat handle on the base of her seat and pulls with all her strength. She hears a massive bang as the canopy of the fighter is separated from the cockpit. An instant later, Yang feels the force of 1,000 punches on every square inch of her body as the ejection seat is propelled away from the doomed aircraft via a rocket motor.

Now 100 meters from the plane, the blonde pilot feels as if she is kicked in the back by a horse as a compressed gas charge separates her from the seat and deploys her parachute.

With most of the pain and extreme noise over, Yang opens her eyes only to be met with extremely blurry vision due to the intense G-forces. Yang looks up and sees that her parachute is fully opened and has slowed her descent to a crawl. Now more aware, Yang looks around and spots the remains of her A-10 crash into the ground in a massive ball of orange flame.

Yang lets out a sigh at the sight of her plane being destroyed before the Su-27 blows by, very nearly colliding with her. Before her vision can stop vibrating, Coco's Harrier follows, hot on the Sukhoi's tail and fires its two Sidewinder missiles. The pair of missiles impact the enemy fighter in the dead center of its body and completely vaporize the plane.

Now slipping in and out of consciousness, Yang hears Coco's voice in the handheld radio on her shoulder.

"Vulcan five! Come in! Give me a sign Xiao Long, anything!"

Yang wearily touches the top of her right fist to the top of her helmet, the universal 'I'm okay' signal.

"Thank god. Just save your strength, I'll have search and rescue come and pick you up as soon as possible. It could be awhile though. Just hold out, Yang!"

Yang's radio then goes quiet and she spots Coco's Harrier speed off into the distance, back home to get help.

With her eyelids getting heavier, Yang looks down and sees the sandy desert floor rapidly approaching. The blonde braces her legs and slams into the ground, tumbling end over end several times and becoming tangled in her parachute wires before coming to a stop. Yang lets out a small chuckle before letting unconsciousness take her.

Eight hours later, at the crack of dawn, Yang's eyes snap open and she snaps bolt upright in an instant and shifting her vision from side to side. She sees that, for one, she is still tangled in her parachute in the middle of the desert, and that it has been several hours since the crash. The blonde grabs her survival knife from her belt and cuts herself free from the tangled mess of parachute cord.

Yang stands up and starts stretching out to see if she sustained any injuries during the flight as well as remove her helmet. With no major injuries, aside from a few minor cuts and bruises, the pilot hikes up a small hill and takes in the surrounding landscape.

When Yang's eyes adjust to the blinding sunlight, she is completely overtaken by the sheer natural beauty of the desert that surrounds her. Additionally, Yang spots two large columns of black smoke against the lovely blue and pink sky.

After taking a few moments to enjoy the gorgeous hills of sand on a blue backdrop, Yang descends the hill and makes her way to her previously abandoned ejection seat. Yang examines the now bent and twisted seat that saved her life and retrieves a small bag of survival gear to add to her equipment vest's supplies. However, Yang quickly notices something is missing from her gear, or rather two things. Ember Celica.

Now in a state of extreme panic, Yang sits down and re-traces nearly every step she took in the past 48 hours.

"I got the call for the mission, I went to my room, I got dressed, I grabbed my gear, I walked to the briefing room, I walked to the hanger, I met up with… I left them on my dresser."

Yang buries her face in her hands at her own stupidity.

"Good job, Yang. Real smooth."

The weaponless pilot stands and grabs her radio from her shoulder strap and tunes it to the correct frequency.

"Vale AFB, this is Vulcan five, what's the status on my rescue operation?"

After a few seconds of silence, Yang hears the other end of the radio come to life, with the distinctive crackle of gunfire and jets rushing overhead in the background.

"Vulcan five, we are currently under attack from both the ground and air. Your rescue operation is going to have to be postponed. Vale command, out."

The blonde aviator promptly throws the radio to the ground and grips the sides of her head in extreme frustration. Yang closes her eyes and grinds her teeth together.

"Just my luck…"

Slowly calming down, Yang sits on the desert floor and opens her scroll as well as a map of the area. She closely studies the map and sees both the large ammunition depot that she destroyed, and a huge Vacuo air base only a few kilometers away. Deciding to pay the base a visit, Yang folds up her scroll and starts off on a route that takes her past the destroyed ammunition depot.

After a few minutes of walking, Yang walks by the destroyed depot and is met with the smell of burning sulfur and explosive debris. The blonde surveys the destroyed warehouses, gun emplacements and garages that litter the acres of blackened desert. Deciding that there is nothing of value to take advantage of, Yang continues on her lonely hike.

With another hour and a half of walking behind her, Yang lies on her stomach at the crest of a hill carefully surveying the Vacuo air base with a pair of binoculars. Yang watches as a Su-34 Fullback attack jet takes off from the main runway, struggling to get itself airborne with a full bomb load weighing it down. Continuing her observation, Yang struggles to find a way past the three layers of chain-link fences layered with razor wire to get inside the base.

After waiting for nearly 20 minutes for any kind of opening, Yang spots a squad of soldiers clad in three color desert camouflage BDUs slowly making their way towards a chain-link gate in the fence. The blonde aviator flattens herself against the desert floor, stows away her binoculars and ties her hair back, preparing to run.

Yang peeks over the crest of the hill and sees that the distance to the fence is about 300 meters of flat running distance away. As the first soldier reaches the gate and swipes his keycard to disable the lock, Yang leaps up from her hiding spot and runs in a dead sprint for the gate. Crossing the distance in nearly 40 seconds thanks to the downward slope of the hill and reaches the gate just after the last soldier crosses through.

Yang watches in horror as the gate begins to swing closed. At the last second, the blonde dives forward and sticks her right forearm in-between the closing gate and the frame. Yang barely suppresses a scream as the gate is stopped, nearly crushing her radius and ulna in the process.

With a ragged breath and tears in her eyes, Yang stands up and shuts the gate behind her. The blonde aviator rolls up the right sleeve of her flight suit and sees that her arm is already starting to bruise from the impact. Ignoring the pain, Yang looks around her and realizes that she immediately sticks out as a potential intruder thanks to her out of place olive drab Vale Air Force flight suit.

Moving through the next two unlocked gates without any trouble aside from the throbbing, burning pain in her arm, Yang starts looking for a person whose clothing she can steal. Turning back to the squad of soldiers now starting to disperse, Yang considers the only two female soldiers.

The first soldier is stocky and muscular, with similar overall body proportions to Yang, but is several centimeters shorter. Even if the BDU is tailored correctly, she would stick out like a sore thumb due to the poorly-fitting pants and shirt. The second soldier is skinny and slightly taller than Yang but also has bright blonde hair, hopefully adding a layer to her disguise that should hopefully make up for the ill-fitting clothing.

"Huh, some Goldilocks I am."

Yang waits until the taller soldier walks into the divide between two storage buildings, far from anybody else and follows her as stealthily as possible. Yang hugs the corrugated steel wall of one of the buildings, now less than three meters from her target. Ignoring the stupidity and obvious risks of attacking an armed opponent who is wearing body armor, Yang delivers a swift kick to the back of the soldier's knee and wraps her right arm around her neck in an attempt to choke her out.

The soldier counters by driving her left elbow into her attacker's ribs, prompting Yang to release her grip and stumble backwards slightly. With her adrenaline now pumping, the blonde soldier whips around and gets a good look at her attacker, seeing Yang in her Vale Air Force flight suit. Although extremely confused, the soldier recognizes the threat and begins to raise her assault rifle to fire at Yang.

Yang rushes forward and grabs the barrel of the rifle with her right hand and keeps the muzzle pointed away from her. As the two begin to struggle over the rifle, Yang delivers a powerful punch to the soldier's right hand, loosening her grip just enough to be able to rip it out of her hands. As a gunshot would compromise her stealth more than anything, Yang delivers a swift strike with butt of the weapon to the soldier's chest, knocking the wind out of her.

After taking several steps backward and taking a painful breath, the soldier rushes forward and uses her weight advantage to tackle Yang to the concrete, forcing the assault rifle more than a meter out of reach for both of the combatants. The soldier uses her knees to pin Yang's legs to the ground and draws a 15cm Tanto knife from a sheath on her ammunition vest. The titanium alloy blade glitters briefly in the brutal desert sunlight as the soldier uses both of her arms to drive the knife downward.

Alarmed at her opponent's strength, Yang holds back the knife whilst letting out a guttural, throaty growl. With the two women using all of their strength to get control over the knife, the soldier looks up and starts quickly looking from side to side to see if anybody else is around to assist her. Realizing that she is about to scream for help, Yang uses her right hand to cover the soldier's mouth as best she can. In response, the soldier bites down with all of her strength, causing blood to start rushing from Yang's hand.

Yang's eyes flare red as her bleeding hand compresses into a fist and she punches the soldier in the nose, breaking it in a large splash of blood. Temporarily stunned, the soldier stands up, freeing Yang from her position on the ground. Back on their feet, the two square off, Yang with her fists raised in a defensive posture and the soldier holding her knife held in an icepick grip, with the blade pointing downward.

Taking the initiative, the soldier takes a swipe at Yang, the horizontal slash aimed at her attacker's neck. Yang quickly ducks under the strike and throws a pair of punches that impact her opponent's chin and right cheek. Now clutching her injured face in pain, the soldier attempts to re-focus herself before Yang delivers a roundhouse kick, the toe of her boot contacting the bridge of her opponent's already broken nose, knocking her unconscious.

Yang takes several large breaths, hugely surprised at her opponent's close-quarters fighting ability. The blonde aviator wastes no time throwing open the side door to one of the luckily vacant and air conditioned storage buildings and dragging the soldier inside. Thankful that their fight didn't raise any attention, Yang begins to strip her opponent of her equipment and clothing, leaving her in only a pair of compression shorts and a sports bra.

The blonde aviator begins to don her opponent's clothing, making sure to transfer every piece of equipment from her flight suit to her new equipment sling. Additionally, Yang keeps the suit itself underneath the new uniform to make the whole outfit fit slightly better due to Yang's comparatively smaller build. After bandaging her hand and putting on the gloves, the blonde grabs the soldier's weaponry.

Yang inspects the rifle picked up from her opponent and sees that it is an XM8. A highly advanced selective fire assault rifle designed by Heckler & Kotch in Atlas and manufactured in armories across Remnant, the XM8 is used by several militaries and tactical police units. Yang detaches the 30-round plastic box magazine and pulls back the charging handle to inspect the interior of the rifle.

Seeing that the firing mechanisms are perfectly clean, Yang snaps the magazine back into place and uses her left thumb to depress the bolt release, chambering a 5.56mm round. Now armed and dangerous, the blonde flips the safety of her XM8 on and dons the soldier's lightweight combat helmet, making sure to secure the chin straps.

Stepping back out into the intense summer heat, Yang shuts the door behind her and starts walking in the direction of the base's center. Yang attracts basically no attention aside from the occasional glance as she trots down one of the base's many walkways crammed with engineers, soldiers and other personnel. With her disguise seemingly working, the blonde looks at the flightline and sees several dozen Vacuo jets undergoing maintenance.

Of all the jets, one in particular catches her eye, a modernized Sukhoi Su-35S on the opposite side of the runway getting fitted with air-to-air missiles and a pair of drop tanks filled with range-extending fuel. Yang stops dead in her tracks and a very dangerous thought crosses her mind.

"Am I really stupid enough to try this?"

Yang continues staring down the Sukhoi and sees that the plane's pilot is already standing nearby as the ground crew finishes prepping the fighter for takeoff. Yang considers the numerous problems with attempting to steal the plane and fly it back to help her comrades fight off the attack in Vale. Among the many problems include the fact that she has never flown a plane that is so fast and maneuverable, is completely unfamiliar with the controls and might simply not be able to steal it in the first place.

"Hey there, Sandy!"

Yang is bought out of her trancelike state by a male soldier walking towards her with a big smile on his face. Now in full panic mode, Yang glances at the badge located above one of the pockets on her shirt and sees _Cpl. Sandra Bishop_ stitched into the fabric. The male soldier wraps Yang in a close hug and her lilac eyes go wide in terror.

"You doing okay, girl? You don't seem so good."

Amazed that her disguise is still working, Yang's mind goes into complete overdrive trying fabricate a story.

"Ah… you know. Fuckin' desert… I'm just not feeling so good is all."

The male soldier immediately releases his hug on Yang and looks her dead in the eyes.

"What the, I've never heard you swear before…and why are your eyes pur..."

Yang draws the Tanto knife from its sheath and presses the tip of the blade against the male soldier's stomach, just below his sternum while still within hug distance as to not alert any passersby.

"I'll tell you what, if you give me your radio, scroll, and promise not to tell anybody about this little incident, I'll tell you where this Sandy girl is."

The male soldier's face hardens into a grim expression.

"Fine, what did you do with her?!"

Yang presses the tip of the knife further towards the soldier's stomach, although not enough to injure him. The blonde aviator switches to a cheery singsong voice.

"That doesn't sound enthusiastic enough!"

"Finefinefinefine! Just please don't hurt me. Here."

The male soldier hands Yang his radio and folded scroll. Yang attaches the radio to her equipment vest and pockets the phone whilst keeping the knife in place.

"Sandy's in the blue storage building near the south gates. She's probably pretty concussed so I'd get her to a doctor if I were you. Now leave."

Yang watches as the male soldier takes several steps backward before turning and running towards the south gates, disappearing into the crowd. The blonde pilot exhales nervously and re-sheathes the knife onto her equipment vest.

"Hey! Why'd you have that knife out?!"

Yang turns around and sees an officer, a captain, looking right at her with a very serious look on his face.

"What are you talking about?"

The captain points to the sheath on Yang's equipment vest.

"The knife that you had out while talking to that guy. Explain yourself… who even are you?!

Yang's eyes quickly dart to the name patch on her shirt.

"I'm Sandra Bishop."

"Okay. What's your rank, unit, and I.D. number… without looking at your damn patch."

The argument begins to attract attention and within only a few seconds, Yang feels several dozen pairs of eyes on her.

"I'll ask you one more time. Tell me who the hell you really are. We can work this out."

Yang tentatively takes a step backwards as the captain begins to reach for his sidearm as well as several of the soldiers turning off the safeties on their rifles. The blonde pilot switches her XM8 to burst-fire and reaches for her vest.

"Men, take her into custody. Let's find out what she knows."

As the group of Vacuo soldiers take their first steps forward, Yang pulls an M84 stun grenade, also known as a flashbang, from her vest, pulls the pin and lets the spoon release. Yang hurls the hexagonal tube at the captain as hard as she can. The grenade bounces off his chest, lingers in the air for a second, and detonates.

Yang, with her eyes covered, is spared from the blinding flash of light but leaves her ears uncovered, temporarily deafening her. The blonde aviator turns and runs for the Su-35 as fast as possible. As the crosses the tarmac, the ringing in Yang's ears slowly starts to dissipate, she is able to pick up the sound of close by jet engines, very close by jet engines. Yang glances to her left and sees a MiG-29 slowly lumbering towards her.

Without thinking or aiming, Yang shoulders her XM8 and fires a pair of three round bursts into one of the engine intakes. The six rifle bullets strike the compressor fan and wreak complete havoc on the delicate engine, causing it to completely tear itself apart due to the massive amount of fast-moving components. This prompts a massive fireball to erupt from the engine and the plane to slowly veer off the runway.

With the fighter out of the way, Yang continues her sprint toward the Su-35, only for several bullets to whiz by her and strike the ground near her feet. Yang wastes another few precious seconds turning around and taking a crouching position. Properly sighting in the XM8's integrated red dot sight, she fires four more bursts toward the group of soldiers, doing her best to disperse her rounds amongst the crowd.

Although Yang is no sharpshooter, she manages to temporarily keep the group at bay with her spray of bullets. With the plane and its crew only 40 meters away, Yang continues her sprint and sees that the crew has drawn weapons of their own and are preparing to fire. Before she can even think about pulling the trigger, the pilot of the Su-35 opens fire with his P90 submachine gun, hitting Yang once in the center of her ballistic vest.

The sheer impact of the 5.7mm bullet contacting the armor nearly cracks one of Yang's ribs and causes her to lose her footing and fall forward, sending her chin crashing into the blacktop. Doing her best to ignore the awful pain, she brings her XM8 to bear on her attackers and flips the selector switch to full-auto. Yang squeezes the trigger and fires until the rifle clacks empty. The large burst of rifle bullets wounds three of the attackers including the pilot, who takes a round in his unarmored side.

Dragging herself up from the ground, Yang's eyes go completely red and her hair begins to ignite. The infuriated blonde ejects the empty magazine, stabs in a fresh one and depresses the bolt release. Moving quickly, Yang sees that the pilot is using the body of the Su-35 to keep himself upright with his other hand still clutching his P90.

Without breaking stride, Yang launches a perfectly aimed punch that impacts the pilot's cheek and knocks him to the ground. Yang rushes past and grabs the pilot's helmet and oxygen mask before doubling back for the cockpit ladder. The blonde aviator scrambles up the ladder and plops herself down in the cockpit.

Amazed she has gotten this far to begin with, Yang flips on the safety of her XM8, lays the rifle on the floor of the cockpit and puts on her newly acquired helmet. Snapping down the visor and attaching her oxygen mask, she looks around the cockpit in a panic and spots a control panel on her left labeled _Master electrical controls_.

"Heh, god bless the idiot proof Air Forces of Remnant."

Yang flicks all the switches, activating the plane's electrical systems in the blink of an eye. The plane's cockpit lights all light up and flash in perfect synch for a few seconds before the pair of touchscreen control boards on the center console spring to life, displaying a number of engineering settings and commands. Yang jabs the ' _Quickstart Engines_ ' button, ignoring the several warning prompts of problems that can occur from forgetting to perform pre-flight checks.

"Okay, little Sukhoi, let's see what you've got."

Within the span of a few seconds, the Su-35's pair of massive Saturn AL-41F1S engines begin to spool up, producing a roar that completely engulfs the surrounding area and the still-open cockpit. After searching for a minute, Yang hits the brake release and feels the jet start to move forward. Yang looks across the tarmac and sees dozens of troops, as well as half a dozen armored vehicles amassing in formation and pointing towards the Su-35.

Yang grabs the control stick and moves the jet so that the nose, and by proxy, her gunsight, will sweep just over the heads of the group of Vacuo soldiers. Quickly thumbing through the pages on her control panel's touch screens, she finally arrives at the weapon manager. Yang quickly jabs a button on the touchscreen and the words _GUN RDY_ flash once on her helmet's HUD.

Just as the gunsight begins to cross over the group, Yang squeezes the trigger, firing 50 rounds from the plane's GSh-301 autocannon. The burst of 30mm ammunition forces the group of soldiers to flatten onto the ground as two of the armored vehicles are shredded. Yang closes the plane's canopy and opens up the throttle as the Su-35 continues its turn onto the runway.

The group of Vacuo soldiers open fire, peppering the fighter jet with small-arms fire. Yang flinches several times as the bullets fail to penetrate the heavily reinforced canopy. Realizing that the plane can only take so much punishment, Yang pushes the throttles to maximum afterburner.

Yang is flattened into the back of her seat, stunned at the plane's incredible acceleration and engine power. The Su-35 reaches takeoff speed in only a few seconds and Yang pulls back on the control stick, sending the plane leaping into the air.

"Holy crap this is awesome!"

With the plane's engines putting out enough thrust to nearly accelerate upwards at a 90-degree angle, the Vacuo air base soon becomes a small grey splotch in a vast and featureless desert. Yang very delicately manipulates the control stick to level out the plane at 10 kilometers, struggling with the fighter's three-dimensional thrust vectoring giving her unbelievable maneuverability.

Now free from immediate danger, Yang inputs the coordinates of Vale central AFB into the Sukhoi's navigation systems and shuts off her afterburners to save fuel. The blonde aviator takes a large breath and holds her hand out in front of her. Yang sees that her hand is unconsciously shaking violently with her thumb's joints twitching without her control.

Yang activates the plane's radio and tunes it to the correct frequency.

"Vale air traffic control, this is Vulcan 4-5 of the 21st fighter squadron of the Vale Air Force. Do you copy?"

"This is Vale air traffic control, go ahead Vulcan five."

"I'm currently in a stolen Vacuo Air Force Sukhoi Su-35S moving at 300 meters per second heading towards southwest Vale. I'm going to assist our forces under attack at Vale central AFB. Please alert all of the forces along the way that I'm a friendly."

"Roger that, Vulcan five. When you get closer to your base you'll meet up with Avalanche squadron, the 111th TFS, you know Colonel Weiss Shnee, Right?"

Yang breathes a sigh of relief, hearing a familiar name.

"I do. I'll meet up with the 111th as soon as possible. Vulcan five out."

Yang shuts off the radio and de-activates her radar to avoid her plane's signals from getting picked up by enemy sensors and settles in for the three-hour flight home.


End file.
